IC-NRLF 


GIFT    OF 
JANE 


ROOSEVELTIAN  FACT  AND 
FABLE.  Illustrated.  i2mo.  200 
pages.  Bound  in  red  cloth.  Fourth 
edition,  with  index,  published  No 
vember  i,  1910.  Price,  postpaid, 
#1.00. 

BULL   MOOSE   TRAILS.     124 

pages.  Bound  in  blue  cloth.  Price, 
postpaid,  75  cents. 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

SUPPLEMENT  TO 
"  ROOSEVELTIAN  FACT  AND  FABLE" 


BY 

MRS.  ANNIE  RILET  HALE 


PRICE,   SEVENTY-FIVE   CENTS 


PUBLISHED   BY   THE  AUTHOR 

AT  6  WEST  66-TH  STREET 

NEW  YORK 


COPYRIGHT,  1912 

BY  ANNIE  RILEY  HALE 

All  rights  reserved 


PREFACE 

When  in  the  compilation  of  "Rooseveltian  Fact 
and  Fable,"  at  Washington,  D.  C.,  in  the  Summer 
of  1908,  I  put  into  the  preamble  of  Chapter  IX — 
entitled,  "Roosevelt  and  the  Mothers" — an  old 
magazine  story  written  by  Lincoln  Steffins  in  1899, 
I  little  dreamed  that  that  story — rescued  from  the 
dust  of  thirteen  years,  and  carrying  Colonel  Roose 
velt's  remark  when  embarking  from  Cuba,  that  he 
"felt  like  a  bull  moose," — would  be  the  innocent 
means  four  years  later,  of  affixing  a  picturesque 
pseudonym  to  a  new  political  party  devoted  to  the 
public  good.  Yet  such,  I  understand,  is  the  fact. 

THE  AUTHOR. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

"SHOWING  His  TEETH"  TO  GENERAL  MILES 

(1901)   i 

CHAPTER  II 

How  ROOSEVELT  "TOOK  PANAMA"  IN  1903     22 

CHAPTER  III 

ROOSEVELT'S  PACT  WITH  THE  MORMONS 

(1903-4) 4i 

CHAPTER  IV 

How  T.  R.  FOUGHT  THE  "BOSSES"  OF  NEW 
MEXICO  (1906-7) 78 

CHAPTER  V 

SOME  EPISODES  AND  SIDELIGHTS  OF  THE 
AFRICAN  EXPEDITION  (1909-10)  .     .    103 


CHAPTER  I. 

"SHOWING  HIS  TEETH"  TO  GENERAL  MILES 

The  True  Version  of  a  Variously  Reported 
Incident 

"I'll  show  you  I've  got  teeth" — suiting  the  action 
to  the  word  and  lifting  a  menacing  forefinger. 
"I've  got  teeth,  and  you  shall  feel  them!" 

The  speaker  was  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States,  and  the  person  addressed 
in  these  savage  words  was  Nelson  A.  Miles,  Com 
manding  General  of  the  United  States  Army.  The 
time  was  December,  1901 ;  the  place,  the  reception 
hall  in  front  of  the  executive  office  in  the  White 
House ;  and  the  audience,  an  indiscriminate  assem 
blage  of  senators,  congressmen,  newspaper  men, 
and  others. 

The  immediate  and  aggravating  cause  of  this 
presidential  explosion  was  an  interview  which 
Miles  had  given  to  an  inquisitive  reporter  some 
days  before  in  Cincinnati,  wherein  he  had  ex 
pressed  his  approval  of  Admiral  Dewey's  verdict 
— just  made  public — in  the  "Schley  Court  of  In 
quiry,"  which  convened  in  September,  1901,  had 
not  concluded  its  work  until  December.  It  will  be 
recalled  that  this  Naval  Court,  called  to  decide  on 


i  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

the  merits  of  the  Santiago  campaign,  was  composed 
of  three  admirals — Dewey,  Benham,  and  Ramsay; 
and  that  Admiral  Dewey,  the  presiding  member  of 
the  Court,  had  rendered  a  verdict  at  variance  with 
the  other  two.  The  majority  verdict,  being  re 
viewed  and  approved  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
was  suffered  to  stand;  from  it  there  was  no  appeal, 
except  to  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and 
he,  when  appealed  to  some  weeks  later  by  Admiral 
Schley,  agreed  with  the  majority  finding. 

At  the  time  General  Miles  gave  the  Cincinnati 
interview,  however,  the  President  had  not  rendered 
his  decision  against  Schley;  it  was  not  apparent,  at 
that  stage  of  the  proceedings,  that  he  had  had  any 
part  in  the  findings  of  the  Naval  Court.  General 
Miles's  comment,  therefore,  could  not  have  carried 
any  criticism  of  Roosevelt,  save  in  that  peculiar 
Rooseveltian  sense  wherein  he  assumed  responsibil 
ity  for  everything  which  happened  under  his  ad 
ministration — except  the  panic. 

It  was  soon  divulged  that  the  Cincinnati  inter 
view  had  given  deep  offence  to  President  Roosevelt 
however,  and  the  Secretary  of  War  was  ordered  to 
demand  an  explanation  of  Miles.  It  was  given  in 
the  following  letter: 

"SIR:— 

"I  have  the  honor  to  state  that  my  observations 
as  substantially  reported  had  no  reference  to  the 
action  pending,  or  otherwise,  of  a  co-ordinate 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 


branch  of  the  service.  They -wete1-  merely  my  per 
sonal  views,  based  upon  matters  set  forth  in  various 
publications  given  to  the  world,  and  concerning 
which  I  conceive  there  was  no  impropriety  in  ex 
pressing  an  opinion,  the  same  as  any  other  citizen, 
upon  a  matter  of  such  public  interest.  My  obser 
vations  were  in  no  sense  intended  as  a  criticism  of 
a  co-ordinate  branch  of  the  service,  and  the  state 
ment  that  I  had  no  sympathy  with  the  effort  to  dis 
parage  a  distinguished  and  gallant  officer  likewise 
had  no  such  reference. 

"Respectfully, 
"(Signed)   NELSON  A.  MILES, 

"Lieut-General,  U.  S.  A." 

Having  dispatched  this  explanation  to  the  Secre 
tary  of  War,  General  Miles  repaired  to  the  White 
House,  to  make  his  peace  with  the  President,  little 
dreaming  what  awaited  him  there.  The  account 
here  given  of  what  occurred  is  taken  first-hand 
from  two  reliable  witnesses  who  were  standing 
quite  near  the  main  participants  in  the  scene;  and 
who,  unless  eyes  and  ears  both  played  them  false, 
could  not  have  been  mistaken. 

According  to  these,  General  Miles  was  standing 
within  a  window  embrasure,  talking  to  a  gentle 
man,  when  a  stir  near  the  door  made  him  aware 
of  the  President's  entrance.  He  immediately 
started  toward  him  with  right  hand  extended;  the 
President  quickly  thrust  his  hand  behind  him,  and 


4'  Bt)LL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

tHe  Gehdrai  as:  quickly  dropped  his — standing  at 
attention.  The  eyes  of  all  those  in  the  room  at 
once  fastened  on  the  pair,  and  under  this  stimulus 
Roosevelt's  theatrical  sense  rose  rapidly.  His 
wrath  was  manifested  in  manner,  tone,  and  sharp 
explosive  sentences:  "Yes,  yes!  I  wanted  to  see 
you.  I  wish  you  to  understand  that  I  will  have  no 
criticism  of  my  administration  from  you,  or  any 
other  officer  in  the  Army.  Your  conduct  is  worthy 
of  censure,  sir.  You  had  no  business  to  express  an 
opinion"  etc.,  etc.  "I  have  got  teeth,  and  you  will 
find  that  I  can  show  them,"  shaking  his  finger  in 
the  General's  face  and  baring  all  his  dental  armo 
ries. 

Miles's  attempted  explanation  was  cut  short  by  a 
repetition  of  the  foregoing — menacing  forefinger, 
teeth,  and  all.  Whereupon  the  old  soldier  of  a 
hundred  battles  lifted  his  chest  and  his  chin  in 
quiet  disdain  and  allowed  his  assailant  to  rave; 
thinking,  as  he  afterward  remarked,  that  uhe  must 
surely  stop  presently  for  lack  of  breath."  Hav 
ing  reached  this  breathless  point,  the  President 
turned  abruptly,  and  left  the  Commanding 
General  standing  in  silence  amid  the  gaping 
spectators. 

The  following  day  General  Miles  received  from 
Secretary  Root  a  formal  reprimand,  which  was  at 
the  same  time  made  public  "by  the  direction  of  the 
President": 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  5 

"LlEUT.-GENERAL  NELSON  A.  MlLES,  U.  S.  A. 
"SIR:— 

"Your  explanation  of  the  public  statement  made 
by  you  is  not  satisfactory.  You  are  in  error  if  you 
suppose  that  you  have  the  same  right  as  any  other 
citizen  to  express  publicly  an  opinion  regarding  of 
ficial  questions  pending  in  the  course  of  military 
discipline.  .  .  .  (Here  follows  a  partial  quo 
tation  of  Army  Regulations.)  You  had  no  business 
in  the  controversy,  and  no  right  to  express  an  opin 
ion.  Your  conduct  was  in  violation  of  the  Regula 
tions  above  cited,  and  you  are  justly  liable  to  cen 
sure,  which  I  now  express. 

"  (Signed)  ELIHU  ROOT,  Secretary  of  War." 

Had  Root  quoted  the  full  text  of  the  Army 
Regulations,  the  irregularity  and  injustice  of  this 
"reprimand"  would  have  been  manifest  to  all. 
After  waiting  a  whole  month  for  the  President's 
wrath  to  cool,  and  willing  to  forgive  much  to  what 
was  popularly  supposed  to  be  the  "Roosevelt  im 
petuosity,"  General  Miles,  carrying  a  full  copy  of 
the  Army  Regulations,  again  sought  the  Executive 
presence ;  and,  pointing  out  the  clause  suppressed  by 
Root,  asked  Mr.  Roosevelt,  as  a  matter  of  simple 
justice  and  manly  reparation,  to  order  a  retraction 
of  the  reprimand.  Roosevelt  promised  to  "think 
about  it";  and,  there  being  no  by-standing  gallery 
to  play  to  this  time,  he  treated  the  Commanding 
General  with  a  measure  of  civility.  Needless  to 


6  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

recount  however,  his  pondering  on  the  circum 
stances  of  the  ''reprimand"  did  not  result  in  a  re 
traction.  Admissions  of  error  are  fatal  to  one  pur 
posing  to  establish  a  habit  of  infallibility,  and  the 
closest  study  of  Rooseveltian  annals  will  not  dis 
close  any  such  mollycoddlish  indices  of  weakness 
upon  his  part.  It  is  "the  other  fellow"  who  is  mis 
taken  always ;  never  T.  R. 

The  popular  outcry  which  went  up  over  the  land 
at  the  treatment  of  General  Miles  was  not  without 
its  disturbing  effect  upon  the  President,  however. 
It  could  not  stir  him  to  the  nobility  of  a  manly 
confession,  but  it  drove  him  to  his  customary  shift 
of  denial  and  evasion.  This  was  accomplished 
through  the  medium  of  his  obedient  "cuckoo"  flock 
at  Washington. 

One  dispatch  stated:  "The  President  is  much 
annoyed  by  the  criticisms  appearing  in  the  press  on 
his  censure  of  General  Miles.  While  the  President 
does  not  object  to  honest  criticism  (oh,  wo/),  he 
does  not  like  to  be  misrepresented.  //  is  now  de 
nied  that  the  scene  was  as  sensational  as  at  first 
reported,  though  the  language  used  was  emphatic. 
.  .  .  //  is  not  believed  that  the  President  shook 
his  finger  in  General  Miles's  face,"  etc.,  etc.,  etc. 

Still  another  obliging  and  ingenious  correspond 
ent  so  worded  his  report  as  artfully  to  lay  the 
blame  for  the  whole  business  upon  Secretary  Root ! 

The  Army  and  Navy  publications  of  that  period, 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  7 

however,  were  not  so  sparing  of  the  Roosevelt  sen 
sibilities.  The  Army  and  Navy  Journal,  of  Decem 
ber  28,  1901,  said:  "By  Article  898,  of  the  Army 
Regulations,  punishment  for  light  offences  is  lim 
ited  to  the  censure  of  the  commanding  officer;  and 
a  reprimand,  such  as  has  been  administered  to  Gen 
eral  Miles,  can  only  be  administered  on  the  verdict 
of  the  court-martial;  since  it  is  a  distinct  and  well- 
defined  punishment  for  specially  named  offences. 
Even  a  non-commissioned  officer  is  under  the  pro 
tection  of  Article  256,  which  directs  superior  offi 
cers  to  be  cautious  in  reproving  him  in  the  hearing 
of  private  soldiers.  Is  it  not  incumbent  that  at 
least  equal  consideration  should  be  shown  to  the 
Commanding  Officer  in  the  presence  of  his  military 
inferiors?" 

The  Army  and  Navy  Register,  in  a  January 
(1902)  issue,  offered  this  comment:  "General 
Miles's  assumed  views  did  not  justify  the  severity 
— not  to  say  the  brutality — of  phraseology  adopted 
by  the  President  in  the  letter  signed  by  Mr.  Root; 
and  there  was  no  reason  for  advertising  the  Execu 
tive  humiliation  to  which  General  Miles  was  so 
crudely  and  so  cruelly  subjected.  .  .  .  The 
President  offended  the  amenities  of  official  and  un 
official  intercourse  when  he  personally  rebuked  the 
Commanding  General  while  calling  at  the  White 
House.  It  is  not  possible  to  justify  that  incident, 
notwithstanding  the  habit  which  Mr.  Roosqvelt  has 


8  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

contracted  of  losing  his  temper.  .  .  .  It  is 
also  undeniable  that  the  President  was  bound  to 
hear  an  explanation  if  General  Miles  had  one  to 
offer.  The  latter  was  not,  however,  permitted  to 
speak  in  his  own  behalf,  and  in  the  presence  of  oth 
ers,  who  must  have  wondered  at  the  spectacle.  Mr. 
Roosevelt  approached  General  Miles  in  a  manner 
which,  without  exaggeration,  may  be  described  as 
savage." 

Wayne  MacVeagh,  of  Philadelphia,  is  authority 
for  the  story  that  a  friend  of  his,  who  called  at  the 
White  House  quite  early  on  the  day  of  Miles's  ill- 
fated  visit,  found  the  President  still  in  the  hands 
of  his  barber.  His  business  (some  phase  of  Penn 
sylvania  politics)  being  urgent,  he  was  admitted  to 
the  lathered  "Presence,"  and  bidden  to  state  his 
case  while  the  barber  proceeded  with  his  work. 
This  man  related  that  he  had  not  gotten  far  in  the 
statement  of  his  errand  when  Mr.  Roosevelt 
dragged  in  the  Miles  misdemeanor,  and  became  so 
furious  in  his  denunciation  of  Miles,  that  he  broke 
away  from  his  barber,  and — one  side  of  his  face 
covered  with  lather — strode  angrily  up  and  down 
the  room,  gesticulating  violently;  and  to  the  as 
tounded  Pennsylvanian  the  President  declared  that 
he  would  "show  his  teeth  to  General  Miles !" 

To  Senator  McComas,  of  Maryland,  who  called 
a  little  later,  President  Roosevelt  uttered  a  similar 
threat  of  "showing  his  teeth  to  Miles." 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  9 

Yet  you  may  search  the  newspaper  files  of  that 
period  in  vain  for  any  mention  of  the  teeth-demon 
stration,  though  it  was  always  given  in  the  viva  voce 
accounts  of  the  "reprimand" — then,  and  since — 
which  serves  to  illustrate  Roosevelt's  phenomenal 
control  of  the  channels  of  publicity  even  in  the  be 
ginning  of  his  regime.  The  incident  further  serves 
to  cast  an  illuminating  ray  upon  the  "Roosevelt  im 
pulsiveness,"  which  has  become  so  fixed  a  portion 
of  the  popular  conception  of  this  illustrious  per 
sonage. 

We  have  seen  how  the  "teeth-showing"  castiga- 
tion  had  been  planned  and  rehearsed  to  two  previ 
ous  callers.  Afterward,  despite  Miles's  plea  for 
"sober,  second  thought";  and  despite  the  Presi 
dent's  promise  to  consider  reparation;  General 
Miles  became,  thenceforth,  the  object  of  studied 
slights  and  petty  persecutions  at  the  hands  of  the 
Roosevelt  administration  which,  beginning  with  the 
"reprimand"  in  December,  1901,  did  not  end  with 
the  "retirement  order"  in  August,  1903.  His  re 
quest  to  be  sent  to  the  Philippines  in  March,  1902, 
was  denied,  and  his  plan  for  ending  the  war  in 
those  islands  was  rejected. 

Later,  in  the  Spring  of  1902,  it  was  currently 
rumored  in  Washington  that  the  President  would 
retire  Miles  more  than  a  year  before  the  legal  age 
for  his  retirement,  and  would  appoint  a  successor 
to  the  post  of  Commanding  General. 


io  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

The  "cuckoo"  press  was  prompt  with  its  explana 
tion  :  Miles  was  not  harmonious  with  the  Adminis 
tration;  he  had  opposed  Secretary  Root's  Army  Bill 
for  the  creation  of  a  "General  Staff,"  with  a  "Chief 
of  Staff"  who  would  take  the  place  of  the  "Com 
manding  General" ;  and  he  had  indulged  some  ra 
ther  frank  criticisms  of  the  existent  order  before 
the  Senate  Committee  in  charge  of  the  bill.  All 
these  were  capital  offences,  meriting  capital  punish 
ment,  and  the  White  House  birds  chirped  forth  the 
news  that  Miles  was  slated  for  decapitation.  Then 
came  a  lull  in  retirement  rumors,  when  presently 
they  ceased  altogether.  Speculation  was  rife,  to 
account  for  the  change;  various  explanations  were 
advanced,  some  even  ascribing  the  credit  to  Secre 
tary  Root — he  who  had  been  made  the  scapegoat 
for  the  reprimand !  The  following  story,  vouched 
for  by  a  high  official  in  Washington,  may  shed  some 
light  on  the  puzzle  picture : 

Among  those  who  heard  with  deep  disfavor  the 
President's  determination  to  inflict  further  humili 
ation  upon  General  Miles  was  the  late  Senator 
Hoar,  of  Massachusetts.  Taking  with  him  six 
other  Republican  senators,  leaders  like  himself  of 
"the  greatest  deliberative  body  on  earth,"  Senator 
Hoar  waited  on  President  Roosevelt,  and  became 
spokesman  for  the  group.  He  told  the  President 
that  Miles  was  a  very  popular  man  in  Massachu 
setts,  highly  esteemed  by  al}  glasses;  that  he, 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  n 

(Hoar),  though  a  political  opponent,  would  be 
greatly  incensed  by  a  needless  affront  to  a  distin 
guished  soldier  and  patriot;  and  that  there  were 
thousands  like  him  in  the  Bay  State  who  would 
never  forgive  it. 

Then,  with  that  astute  appreciation  of  human 
motives — in  which  some  have  supposed  the  venera 
ble  savant  lacking — Senator  Hoar  presented  the 
argumentum  ad  hominem:  "This  is  a  shaky  year 
for  the  Republicans  of  Massachusetts;  several  con 
gressional  districts  are  trembling  in  the  balance, 
which  this  contemplated  move  of  yours  against 
Miles  would  surely  make  Democratic." 

Mr.  Roosevelt  listened  with  a  thoughtful  air  as 
his  mind  took  in  the  significance  of  a  visit  from 
seven  Republican  senators  with  one  purpose;  then, 
with  a  psychomotor  display  of  teeth,  he  replied  to 
Senator  Hoar: 

"What  you  say  impresses  me  very  deeply,  Sen 
ator.  I  will  consider  it  most  carefully." 

Possibly  the  reports  which  began  to  appear  in 
the  press  in  regard  to  Miles's  candidacy  for  the 
presidency  in  1904  impressed  Mr.  Roosevelt  even 
more  deeply  than  the  senators'  visit,  or  Hoar's 
words  of  warning.  An  Army  officer  now  living  in 
Washington  overheard  a  dialogue  between  two 
White  House  factotums,  wherein  one  of  them  af 
firmed:  "Loeb  went  to  him  and  just  told  him,  if 
he  retired  General  Miles,  the  Democrats  would 


12  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

run  Miles  against  him  for  the  presidency  and  beat 

him!" 

We  do  not  need  to  accept  this  White  House  gos 
sip  at  its  full  face  value,  in  order  to  believe  that 
other  motives  than  kindly  consideration  for  Gen 
eral  Miles  stayed  Roosevelt's  hand  in  the  retire 
ment  plan. 

In  October,  1902,  the  War  Department  con 
sented  that  General  Miles  should  go  to  the  Philip 
pines,  to  inspect  the  troops  and  report  conditions. 
If  they  had  known  what  he  was  going  to  find,  more 
especially  if  they  had  known  what  he  was  going  to 
report,  it  is  most  likely  the  President  and  Secretary 
Root  would  have  kept  him  at  home,  despite  the 
great  personal  relief  to  themselves  to  get  him  out 
of  the  country  for  awhile. 

It  was  not  to  be  supposed,  however,  that  the  man 
who  had  exposed  the  "embalmed  beef"  scandal  in 
1898 — braving  the  wrath  of  corrupt  officials — 
would  keep  silent  concerning  the  mediaeval  tortures 
and  barbaric  cruelties  practised  by  American  sol 
diers  upon  defenceless  Filipinos  in  1902.  Still  less 
would  he  connive  at  the  scandal  in  the  Commissary 
Department,  growing  out  of  the  "reconcentration 
order,"  wherein  hundreds  of  thousands  of  natives 
were  ordered  into  the  towns  on  fifteen  days'  notice 
— gathering  in  such  property  as  they  could  carry — 
and  held  there  for  several  months;  during  which 
time  the  enterprising  heads  of  the  Commissary  De- 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  13 

partment  sold  them  "second  quality  rice,  and  dam 
aged  flour,"  at  profits  ranging  from  25  to  100  per 
cent. ! 

This  Philippines  Report  submitted  by  General 
Miles,  February  19,  1903,  is  not  exhibited  with 
noticeable  zest  at  the  War  Department,  but  a  copy 
of  it  may  be  seen  in  The  Army  and  Navy  Journal 
of  May  2,  1903,  and  the  "Anti-Imperialist 
League"  at  Boston  is  always  pleased  to  furnish 
copies  to  applicants.  The  language  of  the  Report 
is  clear  and  to  the  point.  It  does  not  deal  in  vague 
generalities;  it  makes  specific  charges,  names  spe 
cific  individuals,  and  cites  the  proof. 

The  pains  taken  by  Mr.  Roosevelt  at  the  time 
the  Report  was  issued  to  refute  the  truth  of  it,  by 
trying  to  produce  counter  evidence — in  which  he 
failed — should  have  served  to  impress  it  on  his 
memory;  but  we  cannot  believe  he  had  it  in  mind 
when  he  exhorted  the  Britishers — in  his  Guildhall 
speech — to  model  their  government  of  the  Egyp 
tians  upon  "My  Policy  in  the  Philippines  and  in 
Panama  1" 

Naturally  enough,  this  Philippines  Report  did 
not  tend  to  improve  General  Miles's  relations  with 
Mr.  Roosevelt;  and  when  August  8,  1903 — the 
date  for  the  former's  legal  retirement — arrived,  it 
brought  the  President's  opportunity  to  even  the 
score.  This  date  also  marked  the  passing  of  the 
"Commanding  General,"  as  the  new  order  would 


H  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

begin  with  the  installation  of  the  "General 
Staff." 

The  office  had  been  created  for  General  Wash 
ington  in  1798.  It  had  been  held  by  such  distin 
guished  soldiers  as  Winfield  Scott,  George  B.  Mc- 
Clellan,  and  Generals  Halleck,  Grant,  Sherman, 
and  others.  It  was  bestowed  upon  General  Miles 
by  Grover  Cleveland  in  1895,  upon  the  retirement 
of  General  Schofield. 

It  had  been  the  immemorial  custom,  in  retiring 
these  commanding  figures  in  the  Army,  for  the  Sec 
retary  of  War  to  issue  simultaneously  with  the  re 
tiring  order  a  formal  eulogy — commemorating  the 
valiant  deeds,  public  services,  and  private  virtues  of 
the  retiring  officer.  Here  is  an  exact  duplicate  of 
the  order  issued  to  General  Miles : 

"WASHINGTON,  Aug.  8,  1903. 

"By  direction  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  the  retire 
ment  from  active  service  by  the  President,  Aug.  8, 
1903,  of  Lieut-General  Nelson  A.  Miles,  by  op 
eration  of  law  under  the  provisions  of  the  Act  of 
Congress  approved  June  20,  1882,  is  announced. 
Lieut-General  Miles  will  proceed  to  his  home.  The 
travel  enjoined  is  necessary  for  the  public  service. 

"By  order  of  the  Secretary  of  War. 

"H.  C.  CORBIN,  Adj't-General." 

It  is  said  that  Secretary  Root  balked  at  this  crude 
and  brutal  thrust;  and  submitted  a  substitute  order 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  15 

which,  though  not  particularly  effusive,  yet  con 
tained  the  usual  compliments  of  the  conventional 
document;  and  that  Roosevelt  tore  it  in  two,  and 
curtly  ordered  the  first  one  to  stand. 

To  get  the  full  significance  of  the  Miles  retiring 
order,  let  us  compare  it  with  that  of  his  immediate 
predecessor,  perhaps  the  least  illustrious  of  the 
commanding  generals : 

"Lieut.-General  John  M.  Schofield,  having 
reached  the  age  entitling  him  to  relief  from  active 
military  service,  is  hereby  placed  upon  the  retired 
list  of  the  Army.  It  is  with  much  regret  that  the 
announcement  is  made,  that  the  country  is  thus  to 
lose  from  the  command  of  its  Army  this  distin 
guished  General,  who  has  done  so  much  for  its 
honor  and  efficiency.  His  gallantry  in  war  chal 
lenges  the  admiration  of  all  his  countrymen;  while 
they  will  not  fail  gratefully  to  remember  and  ap 
preciate  how  faithfully  he  has  served  his  country 
in  times  of  peace.  His  career  furnishes  to  the  Army 
an  example  of  inestimable  value,  and  should  teach 
all  our  people  that  the  highest  soldierly  qualities  are 
built  upon  the  keenest  sense  of  the  obligations  of 
good  citizenship. 

"By  order  of  the  Secretary  of  War. 

"GEO.  D.  RUGGLES,  Adj't-General." 

And  what  of  this  man,  Nelson  A.  Miles,  whose 
retiring  order  reads  like  the  curt  dismissal  of  a 


1 6  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

corporal  in  disgrace?  Had  he  no  claim  upon  the 
country's  ''grateful  recollection"?  Just  a  glance, 
if  you  please,  at  his  war  record — lest  we  forget, 
and  to  better  appreciate  this  episode  of  the  Roose 
velt  regime,  with  its  reflex  light  on  the  Roosevelt 
character. 

At  the  age  of  22,  Miles  entered  the  Federal  serv 
ice  in  the  Civil  War,  as  Captain  of  the  Twenty- 
second  Massachusetts  Volunteers.  Within  a  year 
he  became,  successively,  Lieutenant-Colonel,  and 
Colonel  of  the  Sixty-first  New  York  Infantry.  In 
May,  1864,  he  was  made  Brigadier-General  of 
Volunteers,  and  in  October,  1865,  Major-General 
of  Volunteers. 

He  was  twice  breveted  in  one  day.  At  the  close 
of  the  Civil  War  he  went  West  to  fight  the  Indians, 
entering  the  Regular  Army  as  Colonel  of  the  For 
tieth  Infantry.  In  1880  he  again  attained  the  rank 
of  Brigadier-General,  and  that  of  Major-General 
in  1890.  Cleveland  appointed  him  Commanding 
General  in  1895,  and  Congress  created  him  Lieut- 
enant-General  in  1900. 

These  are  his  military  titles  and  honors,  and  here 
are  a  few  of  the  daring  deeds  which  won  them :  At 
the  Battle  of  Fredericksburg  (1862)  Miles  com 
manded  the  Sixty-fourth  New  York  Volunteers, 
comprising  27  officers  and  408  men;  three  of  his 
officers  were  wounded  and  105  of  his  men  killed, 
wounded,  or  missing;  yet  he  remained  a  gallant 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  17 

figure  on  the  firing  line  until  he  received  a  severe 
wound  in  the  throat,  and  even  then  was  forcibly 
restrained  from  leading  one  more  desperate  charge 
on  the  Confederate  breastworks. 

At  Chancellorsville,  Miles  held  until  wounded — 
it  was  supposed  mortally — a  line  of  abattis  and 
rifle-pits  against  a  determined  attack  of  the  Con 
federates,  made  in  two  columns  on  each  side  of  the 
road.  He  had  an  important  command  in  the  Get 
tysburg  campaign,  and  in  the  Mine  Run  campaign; 
he  was  actively  engaged  in  the  battles  of  "The  Wil 
derness,"  and  battles  around  Richmond.  At  Spott- 
sylvania  he  led  his  brigade  into  the  renowned 
"Bloody  Angle,"  and  was  foremost  in  the  fighting 
before  Petersburg;  his  division  led  the  advance 
from  Richmond  to  Appomatox.  In  a  word,  he  was 
in  every  battle  fought  by  the  "Army  of  the  Poto 
mac,"  except  one — which  he  missed  on  account  of 
a  severe  wound.  He  received  his  commission  as 
Brigadier-General  in  1864,  after  every  officer  under 
whom  he  had  served — including  Grant,  McClellan, 
Burnside,  Hooker,  Meade,  and  a  dozen  others — 
had  recommended  him  to  the  Secretary  of 
War. 

A  Southern  historian  writes  thus  of  Miles:  "If 
we  except  some  of  the  veterans  of  Napoleon,  we 
shall  have  to  go  back  to  the  warriors  Gibbons  tells 
us  of,  for  soldiers  who  saw  as  much  dangerous  serv 
ice  as  Miles  had  seen  when  completing  his  twenty- 


1 8  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

sixth  year.  He  was  four  times  wounded — at  Fair 
Oaks,  Fredericksburg,  Chancellorsville,  and  Peters 
burg.  He  belonged  to  the  glorious  'Second  Corps' 
under  Hancock,  which  was  the  'Tenth  Legion'  of 
the  Army;  and  there  was  a  while  that  Miles  was  in 
command  of  the  whole  of  it — though  only  a  young 
man  of  twenty-five.  No  other  soldier  of  that  war 
participated  in  more  bloody  battles,  or  sustained 
more  grievous  wounds  than  he." 

And  this  from  a  Northern  authority:  "Miles' s 
military  record  makes  that  of  Lord  Roberts,  Com- 
mander-in-Chief  of  the  British  Army,  insignificant 
by  comparison.  His  service  on  the  plains  after  the 
Civil  War  would  alone  entitle  him  to  high  soldierly 
distinction.  He  practically  ended  the  Indian  wars 
in  the  vast  region  beyond  the  Mississippi,  which  had 
been  devastated  and  terrorized,  and  opened  it  up  to 
settlement  and  civilization,  for  which  the  legisla 
tures  of  five  States  and  Territories  accorded  him  a 
vote  of  thanks." 

General  Sheridan  said  of  Miles's  Indian  war 
fare:  "It  was  the  most  comprehensive  and  most 
successful  in  this  country  since  its  settlement  by  the 
whites." 

General  Hancock  said,  in  1882:  "Miles  is  sec 
ond  to  none — not  even  to  Napoleon." 

And  now  let  us  place  over  against  all  this  the 
war  record  of  "Colonel"  Roosevelt — he  who  had 
ordered  the  "reprimand,"  and  put  spikes  in  the  re- 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  19 

tiring  order,  for  General  Miles.  According  to  his 
most  approved  biographers,  Messrs.  Leupp  and 
Riis,  Roosevelt,  as  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
ubrought  on"  the  war  with  Spain — for  his  own 
glory.  By  a  strong  political  pull,  he  had  himself 
appointed  Lieutenant-Colonel  of  the  fantastic 
"Rough  Riders" ;  then,  by  a  further  jerk  of  official 
patronage — pulling  Wood  up  higher — Roosevelt 
attained  his  present  proud  title  of  "Colonell"  Pur 
suing  his  impetuous  role,  he  "drew  first  blood"  in 
Cuba  by  persuading  General  Wheeler  to  disobey  or 
ders  in  the  premature  engagement  at  Las  Guasimas 
wherein  the  Rough  Riders  under  Wood  and  Roose 
velt  ran  into  an  ambush,  from  which  they  were  nar 
rowly  rescued  by  the  Negro  troops — as  has  been 
so  oft  recounted — not,  however,  until  sixteen 
Rough  Riders  were  killed,  and  fifty-two  wounded 
— a  needless  sacrifice. 

We  next  find  the  valiant  "Colonel" — in  his  old 
impetuous  fashion — dislodging  a  few  non-resisting 
Spaniards  from  the  top  of  Kettle  Hill,  a  low 
browed  knoll  in  the  vicinity  of  San  Juan,  and  paus 
ing  to  watch  his  comrades — the  Infantry  of  Kent 
and  Hawkins — storm  and  capture  the  Spanish 
Block  House  on  the  top  of  San  Juan  Hill.  Yet  a 
fake  story  sent  to  the  Associated  Press  featured 
Roosevelt  as  the  daring  leader  of  the  San  Juan  Hill 
charge,  instead  of  the  safe  and  sane  on-looker  from 
behind  the  sugar  kettles,  a  third  of  a  mile  away! 


20  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

If  we  except  the  "Round  Robin"  mix-up,  which  Sec 
retary  Alger  said  merited  a  court-martial  and  ex 
pulsion  from  the  Army,  and  "shooting  a  little  Span 
iard  in  the  back" — of  which  the  Colonel  himself  is 
the  chronicler — this  fake  charge  up  the  San  Juan 
Hill,  and  the  fiasco  at  Las  Guasimas,  make  up  the 
grand  total  of  Roosevelt's  military  exploits — his 
much-vaunted  "war  record." 

Yet  the  American  people  have  crowned  it  with 
loving  kindness  and  tender  mercies,  and  rewarded 
it  with  every  gift  they  had  to  bestow.  Not  the  least 
count  in  the  indictment  against  us  as  a  nation  for 
the  Roosevelt  folly  which  has  overtaken  us,  is  that 
we  exalted  this  "rough-rider"  tin  soldier  to  a  posi 
tion  whence  he  could  snub  Nelson  A.  Miles !  Like 
the  kid  in  the  fable,  non  ille,  sed  locus,  huic  male- 
dlxit.  As  ex-officio  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
Army,  President  Roosevelt  was  perfectly  safe  in 
striking  at  any  other  officer,  who  could  not  strike 
back  without  incurring  further  punishment  and  hu 
miliation  for  contumacy  toward  his  chief.  Only  the 
people,  whose  battles  Miles  had  fought  for  forty- 
two  years,  could  rebuke  President  Roosevelt;  and 
their  answer  to  that  was  his  triumphant  re-election 
in  1904  by  the  largest  majority  ever  given  to  a 
President ! 

The  people  of  the  West,  whose  homes  Miles 
had  freed  from  the  Indian's  war-whoop  and  scalp- 
ing-knife,  were  particularly  uproarious — and  arc 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  21 

still — in  their  admiration  for  the  President  who 
had  "shown  his  teeth"  to  their  deliverer. 

The  apology  is  sometimes  made  for  us,  that  "we 
are  yet  a  child  among  the  nations  of  the  earth" ;  and 
our  tendency  to  honor  fake  heroes,  while  neglect 
ing  real  ones,  is  ascribed  to  the  child's  ignorance 
and  capriciousness  in  the  selection  of  a  toy.  I  am 
unable  to  decide  whether  this  view  of  us  is  more 
gratifying  to  national  pride  than  Mr.  Barnum's 
dictum :  "Americans  just  naturally  love  to  be  hum 
bugged!"  What  do  you  think? 


CHAPTER  II 

HOW  ROOSEVELT  "TOOK  PANAMA"  IN   1903 

Colonel  Roosevelt's  declaration  to  the  students 
of  the  California  University  on  March  23,  1911, 
that  he  "took  the  Canal  Zone  while  Congress  de 
bated,"  was  followed  by  consequences  out  of  all 
proportion  to  the  Colonel's  innocent  diversion  of 
indulging  in  personal  boasts,  while  on  his  stated 
advertising  tours.  The  immediate  effect  of  this 
Panamamac  boast — or  "confession,"  as  some  un 
flattering  ones  have  dubbed  it — was  an  avalanche 
of  press  criticism  chiefly  adverse;  more  serious  at 
tacks  and  results  followed,  later. 

Now  the  Colonel  never  objects  to  newspaper 
comment,  friendly  or  otherwise;  au  contraire,  it  is 
the  very  breath  in  his  nostrils.  No  man  in  public 
life,  past  or  present,  ever  had  more  astute  apprecia 
tion  of  the  notoriety-worshipping  note  in  human 
nature,  which  measures  a  man's  greatness  by  the 
number  of  times  his  name  appears  in  the  public 
prints.  Certainly  no  man  in  American  public  life 
ever  went  such  desperate  lengths  in  working  the 
notoriety  argument  on  the  unthinking  element  of 
the  population. 

An  amusing  instance  of  this  in  the  last  Republi- 
22 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  23 

can  Convention — June,  not  August — at  Chicago, 
was  related  by  a  staff  writer  for  the  New  York  Sun: 
One  of  the  colored  delegates  to  that  convention, 
who  had  served  in  one  of  the  negro  regiments  em 
ployed  in  the  Spanish-American  War,  and  was — 
for  that  reason  or  some  other — a  warm  supporter 
of  Colonel  Roosevelt,  was  commissioned  by  the 
managers  to  try  to  win  over  some  of  his  brother 
delegates,  instructed  for  Taft.  Said  the  dusky 
Spanish  War  veteran:  "Yas,  sir,  I  tell  yer  Colonel 
Roosevelt's  a  great  man !  He's  de  fust  white  man 
what  I  see  when  I  got  to  Cuba.  Soon  as  I  landed, 
I  looked  up,  and  dar  wuz  Colonel  Roosevelt  a  set- 
tin'  up  on  his  hoss !  Yas,  sir !  dar  he  wuz — a 
settin'  on  his  hoss!"  What  more  could  anybody 
ask,  as  proof  of  the  Colonel's  conspicuous  military 
service  in  that  campaign  ? 

And  even  as  the  Colonel  understood  he  must 
"get  up  on  his  hoss"  to  convince  the  multitude  that 
he  was  the  hero  of  the  Cuban  War,  he  has  known 
ever  since  that  he  could  ride  into  popular  esteem 
on  screaming  head-lines  and  editorial  leaders.  If 
these  last  were  sometimes  severely  condemnatory, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  California  address  just  quoted, 
they  were  made  the  text  for  vigorous  and  exuberant 
replies,  and  thus  the  Roosevelt  fame  went  ever  for 
ward  on  the  publicity  merry-go-round. 

After  the  newspaper  flutter  caused  by  the  foolish 
speech  had  subsided;  and  after  the  Colombian 


24  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

minister  at  Washington,  Senor  Francisco  de  P. 
Borda,  had  sent  a  formal  note  of  protest  to  our 
Secretary  of  State,  on  March  28th;  Hon.  Henry 
T.  Rainey  of  Illinois,  on  April  6th,  introduced  into 
the  House  a  resolution  for  a  Congressional  inquiry 
into  the  methods  of  this  canal-strip  seizure;  to  the 
end  that  the  country  might  learn  the  facts,  and  suit 
able  reparation  be  made  to  Colombia,  if  the  facts 
sustained  her  contention  that  our  Government — 
under  the  Roosevelt  regime — had  been  guilty  of 
wrong  toward  a  weaker  republic.  The  "Rainey 
Resolution"  was  referred  to  the  House  Committee 
on  Foreign  Affairs,  which  thereafter  instituted  a 
searching  investigation,  sending  for  records  and 
witnesses.  Thus  the  whole  scandalous  Panama 
affair,  the  high-handed  and  shameless  manner  of 
taking  the  Isthmus,  garnished  with  the  usual 
Rooseveltian  intrigue  and  high  preachment — was 
revived  and  thrashed  out  in  all  its  disgraceful 
details. 

Absorbed  in  the  work  of  building  the  canal,  and 
elated  over  the  near  prospect  of  completion  and 
profits,  Americans  had  well-nigh  forgotten — those 
of  them  who  ever  knew — the  national  dishonor  in 
volved  in  the  initial  step,  "how  the  United  States 
acquired  the  right"  to  dig  the  big  ditch;  and  Mr. 
Roosevelt  has  only  himself  to  thank,  if,  now  that 
he  has  so  modestly  called  attention  to  it,  his  part 
in  that  Panama  moving-picture  show  of  1903,  shall 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  25 

not  appear  so  heroic  and  blameless  as  he  would 
have  us  believe.  He  may  some  day  learn  the  sad 
truth  that,  stripped  of  presidential  prestige  and 
official  glamour,  his  acts  must  stand  before  the  bar 
of  history  and  the  sober  judgment  of  his  disillu 
sioned  countrymen,  upon  precisely  the  same  footing 
as  all  others — incredible  as  that  may  seem  to  him 
now. 

The  Colonel's  Canal  speech  recalls  a  story  John 
Sharp  Williams  of  Mississippi  once  told  on  the 
floor  of  the  House,  and  which  may  have  a  wider 
applicability  than  to  the  gentleman  John  Sharp 
meant  to  hit  with  it : 

A  young  man  whose  father  had  been  lost  at  sea, 
went  to  the  morgue  of  a  coast  town,  seeking  his 
father's  remains  among  the  unidentified  dead.  He 
found  one  which  so  nearly  resembled  his  father  that 
even  in  the  absence  of  positive  identification  marks, 
he  was  willing  to  give  the  poor  corpse  the  benefit 
of  the  doubt,  and  ordered  it  removed  to  an  under 
taker's  establishment  for  suitable  preparation  and 
interment.  In  moving  the  corpse,  in  the  young 
man's  presence  however,  the  morgue  attendants  in 
advertantly  turned  it  over,  and  the  jostling  caused 
a  set  of  false  teeth  to  drop  from  the  dead  man's 
mouth.  Whereupon,  the  supposed  son,  with  a 
hasty  exclamation,  quickly  revoked  his  order,  and 
disowned  the  body,  averring  that  his  father  had 
never  worn  false  teeth!  After  the  young  man's 


26  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

departure,  the  morgue-keeper,  settling  the  corpse  to 
its  former  position,  addressed  to  it  the  following 
disgusted  remark:  "You  blamed  fool!  If  you  could 
have  kept  your  d — d  mouth  shut,  you  might  have 
had  a  decent  burial  I" 

In  the  judgment  of  some  of  us,  however,  it  is  far 
more  important  that  the  truth  of  history  should  be 
vindicated ;  that  the  American  conscience  should  be 
aroused — by  a  full  review  of  the  facts  in  the  case — 
to  the  real  import  of  this  Panama  seizure,  to  the 
end  that  tardy  justice  may  be  done  a  weaker  nation 
— so  far  at  least  as  money  restitution  can  repair  the 
wrong,  than  that  T.  R.  should  have  "a  decent 
burial."  Though  we  shall  endeavor — with  the  aid 
of  this,  and  other  interesting  facts  in  his  public 
record — to  celebrate  his  political  obsequies  with  as 
much  dignity  as  possible,  and  not  later  than  No 
vember,  1912. 

The  "Rainey  Resolution"  and  the  Congressional 
inquiry  found  a  quick  echo  in  various  magazine  ar 
ticles  on  the  subject  published  throughout  the 
country;  most  prominent  among  these  being,  "The 
Stain  on  Our  Flag,"  by  Henry  G.  Granger,  a 
former  United  States  Consul  in  Colombia,  which 
appeared  in  the  staid  and  circumspect  Independent 
(New  York)  of  August  17,  1911;  and  Colonel 
Roosevelt's  4,oooword  answer  to  all  his  critics, 
issued  in  the  Outlook  of  October  7,  1911,  and  en 
titled  "How  the  United  States  Acquired  the  Right 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  27 

to  Dig  the  Panama  Canal."  The  Outlook  out 
break  in  turn  drew  fire  from  the  Consul-General 
of  Colombia  living  in  New  York,  Francisco  Esco 
bar,  in  an  "open  letter"  to  Colonel  Roosevelt,  and 
some  months  later  from  Leander  T.  Chamberlain, 
in  an  exhaustive  and  masterly  arraignment  of  Mr. 
Roosevelt's  course  in  the  Panama  affair,  which  was 
published  in  the  February  (1912)  number  of  the 
North  American  Review. 

The  Escobar  letter  is  chiefly  significant  in  the 
sympathetic  comment  it  evoked  from  the  American 
press.  Out  of  more  than  thirty  newspapers  ex 
amined,  I  found  only  five  which  evinced  any  dis 
position  to  defend  the  Colonel  from  the  Consul- 
General's  attack,  and  these  based  their  defence  upon 
a  point  of  etiquette,  rather  than  a  "plea  in  equity," 
and  since  the  doughty  Colonel  himself,  when 
shown  the  letter,  was  quoted  as  saying:  "Gracious 
me !  I  would  not  think  of  answering  it  any  more 
than  I  would  think  of  flying,"  it  may  be  well  to 
quote  this  letter  in  full : 

"To  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Contributing  Editor  to 

The  Outlook,  New  York  City. 
"Sm:  Former  Presidents  of  the  United  States 
have  stepped  down  from  the  highest  position  attain 
able  by  mortal  man,  to  again  become  private  citi 
zens  of  this  great  Republic,  and  have  carried  with 
them  into  their  retirement  the  dignity  of  their  office 
and  the  respect  of  their  fellow-countrymen.  You 


28  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

have  elected  a  different  course,  and  by  capitaliz 
ing  your  Presidential  prestige  as  the  paid  employee 
of  a  weekly  journal,  have  forfeited  the  considera 
tion  due  to  the  high  office  you  once  held.  You  can 
now  pretend  only  to  such  respect  as  you  as  a  man 
deserve.  I  say  this  to  make  it  quite  clear  that  I  am 
addressing  you  as  an  individual,  and  do  not  wish 
to  reflect  either  upon  the  Government  or  the  people 
of  the  United  States,  for  whom  I  have  the  deepest 
respect  and  regard. 

4 'In  a  signed  article  purporting  to  show  how  the 
United  States  acquired  the  right  to  build  the 
Panama  Canal,  you  use  language  which  any  decent 
newspaper  would  have  hesitated  to  print.  You  say 
that  'Colombia  had  shown  herself  utterly  incompe 
tent  to  perform  the  ordinary  governmental  duties 
expected  of  a  civilized  state.  You  refer  to  the  gov 
ernment  of  Colombia  as  'government  by  a  succes 
sion  of  banditti/  and  as  'archaic  despotism — in 
efficient,  bloody,  and  corrupt/  and  in  summing  up 
your  actions  as  President  you  declare,  'We  did 
harm  to  no  one  save  as  harm  is  done  to  a  bandit 
by  a  policeman  who  deprives  him  of  his  chance  of 
blackmail.' 

"In  default  of  argument,  such  is  the  unseemly 
language  you  use  to  justify  the  rape  of  the  Isthmus, 
and  refute  the  oft-repeated  charges  that  you  dealt 
unfairly  with  Colombia;  that  you  violated  a  public 
treaty,  in  which  the  United  States  had  pledged  its 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  29 

honor  as  a  nation  to  guarantee  the  sovereignty  of 
Colombia  over  the  Isthmus;  that  you  recognized 
the  fake  republic  of  Panama,  in  defiance  of  accepted 
principles  of  international  law,  so  as  to  permit  your 
friends  who  were  interested  in  the  Panama  Canal 
Company,  to  put  through  their  forty  million  dollar 
deal  with  the  United  States;  that  you  prostituted 
the  Navy  of  the  United  States  to  the  same  end; 
that  you — but  why  continue  the  long  list  of  un 
answered  charges?  Instead  of  answering  them,  you 
hurl  insults  and  slanders  at  the  unfortunate  country 
you  robbed  of  her  most  valuable  possession. 

"When  you  speak  of  blackmailers  and  bandits, 
Mr.  Roosevelt,  have  you  forgotten  the  ultimatum 
you  sent  to  Colombia,  threatening  her  with  dire 
results  if  her  Senate  did  not  ratify  without  amend 
ment  the  'treaty'  written  by  the  attorney  for  the 
Panama  Canal  Company  ?  Have  you  forgotten  the 
American  marines  landed  by  Admiral  Glass  and 
sent  into  the  Atrato  region  to  Yavisa,  and  Real  de 
Santa  Maria?  Who  was  the  blackmailer  and 
bandit  then?  Who  has  told  the  truth  about  this 
matter  all  along  ?  Was  it  you,  when  you  told  Con 
gress  that  the  people  of  Panama  'rose  literally  as 
one  man'  ?  Was  it  you  when  you  boasted  that  you 
took  Panama  and  let  Congress  debate?  Or  was  it 
you,  when  you  wrote  that  your  actions  in  this  mat 
ter  were  as  free  from  scandal  as  the  public  acts  of 
George  Washington  and  Abraham  Lincoln,  and 


30  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

that  every  action  taken  was  not  only  proper,  but 
was  carried  out  in  accordance  with  the  highest, 
finest,  and  nicest  standards  of  public  and  govern 
mental  ethics  ? 

"I  think  Colombia  can  safely  leave  these  ques 
tions  to  be  answered  by  the  conscience  of  the  Ameri 
can  people. 

"FRANCISCO  ESCOBAR, 
"Consul-General  of  Colombia." 

The  New  York  Herald  observed  of  this  letter, 
that  it  as  "nearly  typified  the  physical  acts  of 
boxing  the  ears,  tweaking  the  nose,  and  adminis 
tering  a  kick,  as  a  piece  of  writing  could  possibly 
do;"  and  the  friendly  note  of  most  of  the  press 
comment  in  regard  to  it  can  only  be  interpreted  as 
a  distinct  repudiation  of  Colonel  Roosevelt's  felici 
tation  upon  his  manner  of  "taking"  the  Isthmus. 
This  much  is  gratifying,  and  argues  hopefully  for 
the  vindication  of  Escobar's  trust  in  "the  conscience 
of  the  American  people." 

Scarcely  less  drastic  than  the  Consul-General's  in 
dictment  of  T.  R.,  though  couched  in  more  digni 
fied  terms,  was  that  of  Leander  T.  Chamberlain, 
the  venerable  minister,  scholar,  author,  scientist, 
publicist,  patron  of  arts,  and  former  judge-advocate 
of  the  Navy,  who  replied  to  the  Colonel's  Outlook 
peroration,  which  the  learned  divine  characterized 
as  a  curious  blend  of  "personal  boasting,  sweeping 
misstatement,  and  perfervid  invoking  of  high 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  31 

morality."  After  reciting  the  treaties,  marshaling 
the  facts,  and  recounting  the  remarkable  proceed 
ings  at  Panama  in  November,  1903,  this  high  au 
thority  writes  across  the  whole  affair,  UA  Chapter 
of  National  Dishonor."  He  replies  to  "the  self- 
appointed  protagonist  of  imperial  efficiency,"  in  the 
scathing  words :  "The  verdict  of  history  reads, 
'The  policeman  himself  turned  bandit.  In  the  name 
of  equity,  and  under  the  guise  of  friendship,  he 
smote  the  innocent  and  plundered  the  defence 
less.'  " 

However,  there  is  no  special  need  of  expert 
testimony  or  learned  expositors  to  make  plain  the 
nature  of  this  Panama  transaction.  A  very  cursory 
reading  of  the  official  and  historic  records,  will  re 
veal  to  the  man  in  the  street  just  what  it  meant  for 
this  Government  to  "take"  the  Canal  Zone  in  the 
manner  authorized,  and  now  bragged  about,  by  its 
then  accredited  agent,  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Presi 
dent.  We  will  briefly  review  the  facts:  Back  in 
the  40*8,  before  the  days  of  transcontinental  rail 
roads  in  the  United  States,  it  was  very  important 
to  our  Government,  in  the  opening  up  and  settle 
ment  of  California  and  the  Pacific  slope,  to  have 
the  free  transit  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  owned 
and  controlled  then  as  in  1903,  by  the  South 
American  State  of  New  Granada,  afterwards  called 
Colombia.  So  that  in  the  latter  part  of  President 
Polk's  administration,  1846-8,  a  treaty  was  formu- 


32  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

lated,  signed,  and  ratified,  which  cited  in  the  pre 
amble  :  "The  United  States  of  North  America  and 
the  Republic  of  New  Granada  (now  Colombia)  in 
South  America,  desiring  to  make  lasting  and  firm 
the  friendship  and  good  understanding  which 
happily  exist  between  both  nations,  have  resolved 
to  fix  in  a  manner  clear,  distinct,  and  positive,  the 
rules  which  shall  in  the  future  be  religiously  ob 
served  between  them,  by  means  of  a  treaty,  or  gen 
eral  convention  of  peace,  friendship,  commerce  and 
navigation." 

The  terms  of  this  ufirm  and  inviolable  peace  and 
friendship,"  stripped  of  superfluous  verbiage,  were 
certain  reciprocal  privileges  of  importation  and 
tonnage  dues;  a  guarantee  upon  the  part  of  Co 
lombia  of  a  free  and  open  transit  across  the  Isth 
mus  ;  and  upon  the  part  of  the  United  States,  being 
the  stronger  of  the  two  republics,  an  absolute 
guarantee  of  Colombia's  sovereignty  over  the 
Isthmus,  and  her  property  rights  in  the  territory; 
and  to  maintain  the  strict  neutrality  of  the  Isthmian 
passage  against  any  threatened  foreign  invasion. 
It  was  not  merely  a  diplomatic  exchange  of  friendly 
platitudes;  it  was  a  bargain,  with  clearly  defined 
stipulations,  signed  and  sealed;  for  certain  privi 
leges  and  immunities  obtained  from  Colombia,  the 
United  States  covenanted  to  secure  to  the  little 
sister  republic,  the  peaceful  enjoyment  of  her 
choicest  possession — the  Isthmus  of  Panama.  It 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  33 

was  so  held  and  respected  by  all  our  Presidents 
from  Polk  to  Roosevelt — not  inclusive  of  the  latter. 
The  archives  of  the  State  Department  at  Wash 
ington  abound  in  expressions  from  former  presi 
dents  and  secretaries  of  state,  confirming,  empha 
sizing,  and  strengthening  this  compact. 

In  1869,  a  new  convention  was  entered  into  be 
tween  Colombia  and  the  United  States,  which  gave 
the  latter  leave  to  build  a  ship  canal  across  Panama ; 
yet  though  it  was  signed  by  the  Presidents  of  both 
countries  and  ratified  by  the  Colombian  Congress, 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States  rejected  it,  but 
somehow  not  much  prominence  has  been  given  to 
this  "infamous,  corrupt,  and  bloody"  attempt  upon 
the  part  of  our  Senate  to  obstruct  and  defeat 
"the  great  world  enterprise  and  dream  of  the 
centuries" ! 

The  reverse  of  this  programme  obtained  in  1903, 
when  the  "Hay-Herran  Treaty"  was  signed  at 
Washington  in  January,  ratified  by  our  Congress  in 
March,  and  forwarded  to  the  Colombian  Congress, 
with  President  Roosevelt's  ultimatum,  that  that 
treaty  "covered  the  whole  matter,  and  any  change 
would  be  in  violation  of  the  Spooner  law,  and  not 
permissible."  This  ultimatum  was  re-inforced  by 
one  or  two  veiled  threats  from  the  State  Depart 
ment  to  the  American  minister  at  Bogota — by  way 
of  soothing  Colombia's  pride — while  the  treaty  was 
pending  in  the  Colombian  Senate,  and  these,  to- 


34  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

gether  with  the  more  material  considerations,  led  to 
its  rejection  by  Colombia  on  August  12,  1903. 

Says  Mr.  Granger,  writing  in  the  Independent: 
"It  is  interesting  to  note  that  there  is  no  evidence 
to  sustain  the  report  circulated  at  the  time,  that 
Colombia  attempted  to  'hold  up'  the  United  States 
Government  for  a  larger  sum  than  the  $10,000,000 
stipulated  by  the  treaty.  .  .  .  The  official  records 
of  the  United  States  show  that  if  Colombia  had 
been  allowed  to  deal  with  the  French  Canal  Com 
pany  as  was  her  right  by  the  Hay-Herran  Treaty, 
and  to  exact  from  this  company  a  sum  which  under 
the  circumstances  was  within  reason,  the  treaty 
would  have  been  ratified  by  Colombia,  and  the 
United  States  would  have  secured  all  it  desired  in 
a  perfectly  proper  and  legitimate  manner." 

Other  reliable  investigators  of  Colombian  official 
records,  testified  that  "of  all  the  amendments  intro 
duced  into  the  Colombian  Senate,  there  was  not  one 
relating  to  the  compensation,  either  in  money  or  in 
any  other  form,  that  Colombia  was  to  receive  from 
the  United  States  in  exchange  for  the  concessions 
granted  by  the  former  to  the  latter  country;"  that 
"the  objections  of  Colombia  to  the  Hay-Herran 
treaty  were  two-fold:  (i)  Divested  of  all  diplo 
matic  jargon,  the  treaty  provided  for  the  sale  to 
the  United  States  of  the  Canal  Zone,  and  such 
alienation  of  the  national  territory  was  expressly 
prohibited  by  the  Colombian  Constitution;  (2)  the 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  35 

Treaty  entailed  an  abandonment  of  Colombia's  re 
versionary  right  in  the  Panama  Railroad — from 
which  she  derived  a  yearly  income  of  $250,000 — 
and  made  no  provision  for  an  equitable  settlement 
between  the  New  Panama  Canal  Company  and 
Colombia,  looking  to  the  payment  by  the  former 
of  just  compensation  to  Colombia  for  the  general 
release  of  concessionary  obligations  contemplated 
by  the  transfer  of  the  Company's  property  to  the 
United  States." 

It  will  be  observed  that  Editor  Roosevelt  finds 
in  this  natural,  reasonable,  and  legitimate  desire 
upon  the  part  of  Colombia  to  hold  the  New 
Panama  Company  to  the  terms  of  its  agreement 
with  her,  a  final  sign  of  depravity,  just  what  one 
might  expect  from  a  "bloody,  archaic  despotism" 
like  the  Colombian  government ;  and  when  we  learn 
the  deep  and  abiding  interest  of  his  dear  friend, 
William  Nelson  Cromwell,  in  the  fate  of  the  New 
Company,  this  is  not  to  be  wondered  at. 

William  Nelson  Cromwell,  the  brilliant  and  ver 
satile  New  York  lawyer  who  was  the  American 
attorney  for  the  "New  Panama  Canal  Company" 
— which  had  succeeded  the  old,  bankrupt  De  Les- 
seps  Company  on  the  Isthmus — openly  confessed 
that  he  had  written  the  "Hay-Herran"  treaty,  and 
this  readily  accounts  for  the  convenient  loop-holes 
in  that  instrument  enabling  the  New  Company  to 
elude  its  obligations  to  Colombia.  From  all  ac- 


36  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

counts,  Mr.  Cromwell  was  the  very  busy  lobbyist 
for  the  New  Canal  Company  at  Washington,  from 
January,  1902,  when  the  House  passed  the  Hep 
burn  Bill — by  a  practically  unanimous  vote — to 
build  the  canal  at  Nicaragua,  up  to  March,  1903, 
when  the  Nicaraguan  forces,  led  by  the  venerable 
Senator  Morgan  of  Alabama,  were  completely 
overthrown  in  the  ratification  by  the  Senate  of  the 
Hay-Herran  treaty.  The  only  thing  saved  to  the 
Nicaraguan  contestants  was  the  Spooner  proviso, 
that  upon  the  failure  of  Colombia  to  ratify  the 
treaty  "within  a  reasonable  time,"  our  Government 
would  immediately  proceed  to  negotiate  for  the 
Nicaraguan  right  of  way. 

It  was  commonly  said  at  the  time  that  the  chief 
influence  which  changed  the  Congressional  verdict 
from  the  Nicaraguan  to  the  Panama  route,  was 
that  of  Senator  Hanna ;  but  a  Republican  Senator 
very  close  to  Hanna  is  my  authority  for  the  state 
ment,  that  up  to  the  time  of  William  Nelson  Crom 
well's  appearance  in  Hanna's  office,  that  "practical" 
statesman  knew  as  much  or  cared  as  much  about  the 
subject  of  inter-oceanic  canals  as  he  did  about  Wag- 
nerian  opera ;  and  that  the  masterly  argument,  set 
ting  forth  the  advantages  of  the  Panama  route, 
which  Hanna  delivered  in  the  Senate — and  which 
was  reputed  to  have  had  such  convincing  weight — 
was  the  argument  of  William  Nelson  Cromwell  1 

Naturally,  such  a  versatile  genius  was  not  to  be 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  37 

turned  from  his  purpose  of  having  the  United 
States  build  a  canal  across  Panama,  by  a  trifle  like 
the  failure  of  the  Colombian  government  to  ratify 
the  treaty.  Neither  was  the  Spooner  Amendment 
pertinent,  or  in  any  way  germane  to  the  Crom- 
wellian  plan — so  it  was  never  mentioned  nor  con 
sidered  after  Colombia's  refusal.  There  yet  re 
mained  for  the  attainment  of  the  Cromwell  goal,  a 
Panama  "uprising,"  which  with  the  timely  and 
efficient  backing  of  United  States  gunboats,  might 
grow  into  a  Panama  "revolution"  which  would 
serve  every  Cromwellian  end. 

The^  story  of  how  President  Roosevelt  ordered 
"Acting  Secretary  of  the  Navy"  Darling  to  send 
the  cablegram  to  the  commander  of  the  United 
States  warships  stationed  at  Colon  and  neighboring 
ports,  to  "maintain  an  open  transit,"  and  prevent 
the  landing  of  any  Colombia  troops  "within  fifty 
miles  of  Panama" — this  order  being  dated  Novem 
ber  2d,  and  the  "uprising"  not  occurring  until 
November  3d, — and  the  immediate  recognition  of 
the  fake  "Republic"  on  November  5th, — two  days 
after  the  "up-rising," — was  all  thrashed  out  in  the 
press  and  in  the  Congress  of  that  day,  and  is  too 
familiar  to  require  repetition  of  the  details. 

Editor  Roosevelt  finds  vindication  of  President 
Roosevelt's  course,  in  the  fact,  that  all  the  Euro 
pean  powers  quickly  followed  his  example  in  giv 
ing  recognition  to  the  infant  Republic.  Certainly, 


38  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

why  not?  Where  is  the  European  "power"  which 
would  refuse  recognition  to  "Uncle  Sam's" 
adopted  foundling?  Quoting  Dr.  Chamberlain: 
uHe  adopted  the  child  before  it  was  born,  mid- 
wifed  its  birth,  and  became  sponsor  for  it  during 
its  puling  infancy";  and  he  brought  it  to  such 
robust  national  proportions  in  nine  days  from  the 
date  of  its  birth,  that  it  was  ready  to  treat  on  an 
equal  footing  with  the  great  American  govern 
ment  at  Washington  on  April  13,  1903,  through 
its  accredited  ambassador,  M.  Philippe  Bunau- 
Varilla ! 

This  gentleman,  a  French  alien,  and  business 
associate  of  Mr.  Cromwell  in  the  New  Canal  Com 
pany,  was  conveniently  located  in  New  York — so 
that  no  time  might  be  lost  in  transporting  him  from 
Panama  to  Washington — and  he  was  escorted  to 
the  White  House  by  "Acting  Secretary  of  State 
Loomis." 

Five  days  later,  November  i8th,  the  canal  treaty 
was  signed,  whereby  Colombia's  $10,000,000  went 
to  the  Panamaniacs,  and  the  $40,000,000,  paid  by 
our  Government  for  the  New  Company's  property 
— which  it  was  said  had  been  offered  a  short  time 
previous  for  $6,000,000 — was  delivered  through 
J.  P.  Morgan  and  Company,  bankers,  to  Crom 
well,  Bunau-Varilla,  and  their  associate  holders  of 
the  French  Company's  stock, — and  all  this  long  be 
fore  Panama  had  anything  resembling  a  constitu- 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  39 

tion,  before  she  had  held  an  election,  or  exercised 
any  of  the  usual  functions  of  a  sovereign  State ! 

The  sinister  aspects  of  Mr.  Cromwell's  connec 
tion  with  this  Panama  business,  need  not  be  empha 
sized  further  than  to  say,  that  when  he  was  sum 
moned  as  a  witness  before  the  Senate  Committee  in 
vestigating  the  same  in  1906,  he  persistently  and 
arrogantly  refused  to  answer  pertinent  questions, 
and  his  insolent  replies  to  old  Senator  Morgan,  won 
him  the  contempt  of  everybody  who  heard  him, 
or  who  read  the  Committee  hearings. 

The  impertinent  inquiry  raised  by  the  New  York 
World  in  the  Fall  of  1908 — "who  got  the 
money?" — i.e.,  who  were  the  chief  beneficiaries  of 
the  $40,000,000  fund,  is  still  shrouded  in  mystery. 
The  World's  impertinence  was  rebuked  by  Presi 
dent  Roosevelt  in  a  criminal  libel  suit  instituted 
against  it  by  his  Attorney-General  in  February, 
1909;  and  the  Indianapolis  News  was  likewise 
brought  into  court  on  a  similar  indictment,  for 
presuming  to  quote  the  World's  scandalous 
charges.  After  two  years  of  court  proceedings, 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  decided 
that  the  matter  was  not  justiciable  in  the  Federal 
Courts.  This,  of  course,  only  settled  the  question 
of  jurisdiction,  and  did  not  touch  the  question  at 
issue  between  Mr.  Roosevelt  and  the  World. 

I  understand,  however,  that  the  case  may  be  tried 
on  its  merits  in  the  State  courts,  and  some  persons 


40  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

have  wondered  why  Colonel  Roosevelt  did  not 
promptly  rebuke  the  Supreme  Court  decision  by 
bringing  action  for  libel  against  the  World  in  the 
New  York  courts. 

Perhaps  after  the  fall  election,  and  the  assign 
ment  of  the  Bull  Moose  to  its  proper  place  in  the 
governmental  machinery,  he  may  have  more  leisure 
to  do  this.  We  may  then  get  some  illuminating 
phases  of  the  Panama  incident  not  now  obtainable 
from  the  records. 


CHAPTER  III 

ROOSEVELT'S  PACT  WITH  THE  MORMONS 
(1903-4) 

Twenty-five  years  ago — so  the  story  goes — a 
young  politician  consulting  Charles  A.  Dana  as  to 
a  convenient  campaign  issue,  received  this  cynical 
advice:  "Flay  the  Mormon,  and  roast  the  China 
man,  for  neither  has  any  friends." 

If  the  great  journalist  were  alive  to-day  he 
would  have  to  retract  his  witty  cynicism  as  to  the 
Mormons.  He  would  know,  what  every  one  keep 
ing  tab  on  the  under-currents  of  politics  knows, 
that  the  Mormon's  "friends"  are  the  most  impor 
tant  factor  in  present-day  Mormonism;  that  to 
these  "the  Church  of  the  Latter-day  Saints"  owes 
its  advancement,  in  twenty-five  years,  from  a  de 
spised  and  "persecuted"  sect  to  a  rich  and  power 
ful  hierarchy,  counting  its  wealth  in  terms  of  rail 
roads,  mines,  power  and  light  plants,  salt-works, 
sugar  factories,  department  stores,  newspapers, 
theaters — every  conceivable  form  of  business  en 
terprise;  and  numbering  its  "friends"  among  the 
learned  and  potent  in  American  political  and 
financial  cliques. 

Beginning  with  six  members  in  1831,  this  queer 
41 


42  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

sect  whose  corner-stone  is  polygamy,  now  has  a 
following  in  this  country  and  abroad  of  nearly 
one  million  souls.  Its  real  estate  holdings  com 
prise  a  region  larger  than  France  plus  Spain  and 
Portugal.  uAs  to  money,  mere  gold,"  says  one 
recent  investigator,  "the  Mormon  Church  over- 
towers  the  Steel  Trust  or  Standard  Oil;  it  can 
command  and  secure  $50,000,000  on  twenty-four 
hours'  notice." 

Joseph  F.  Smith,  present  Prophet  and  head  of 
the  Church,  has  a  yearly  income  of  approximately 
$2,000,000  from  the  tithes  levied  on  its  member 
ship,  for  whose  investment  or  distribution  he  is 
accountable  to  no  one  save  himself. 

He  exercises  absolute  and  autocratic  sway  over 
his  followers  in  secular,  as  well  as  spiritual  mat 
ters,  and  no  member  of  his  flock  dares  enter  upon 
any  sort  of  business  venture  without  his  consent. 
The  few  hardy  spirits  who  have  attempted  defi 
ance  of  his  will,  have  bitterly  paid  the  price  in  the 
wreck  of  their  fortunes.  A  Northwestern  senator, 
who  shall  be  nameless  here  by  his  own  request 
(Northwestern  statesmen  being  notoriously  ret 
icent  touching  Mormon  State  secrets),  thus  testi 
fied  in  1910:  "Politically,  the  Mormon  Church 
grows  constantly  stronger.  It  holds  Utah  in  the 
hollow  of  its  hand;  it  holds  the  balance  of  power 
in  Idaho,  Wyoming,  Nevada,  Colorado,  Mon 
tana,  Arizona,  and  New  Mexico;  and  has  convinc- 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  43 

ing  political  weight  in  Oregon  and  Washington 
State.  In  the  United  States  Senate,  for  what  it 
wants,  the  Mormon  Church  already  holds  twelve 
seats,  and  when  Arizona  and  New  Mexico  pick 
their  senators,  it  will  get  its  brand  on  four  more." 

How  has  all  this  come  about?  It  is  a  long 
story,  but  the  answer  may  be  found,  in  brief,  in 
Mormon  industry,  patience,  and  cunning  in  "mak 
ing  friends"  with  important  Gentile  political  and 
commercial  interests. 

After  the  killing  of  their  Prophet  and  founder, 
the  first  Joseph  Smith,  whose  "divine  revelation" 
anent  plural  and  celestial  marriage — accompanied 
by  an  energetic  application  of  the  principle  in  his 
own  person,  together  with  certain  lax  notions  con 
cerning  the  property  rights  of  his  neighbors,  cost 
him  his  life  in  the  Illinois  village  of  Nauvoo  sev 
enty  years  ago, — the  "Saints"  fled  into  the  Western 
desert  (1847)  under  the  leadership  of  Brigham 
Young,  the  mightiest  Mormon  of  them  all,  and 
the  doughty  husband  of  twenty-one  wives! 

It  is  said  that  at  first  he  had  dreams  of  an  inde 
pendent  empire  in  the  West — devoted  to  his  pe 
culiar  marital  theories,  but  later  compromised  on 
the  "State  of  Deseret"  which  he  reared  amid  the 
sand  dunes  of  what  is  now  Utah. 

This  he  sought  to  have  admitted  to  the  Union, 
but  was  denied  during  many  years  because  of  the 
sentiment  against  polygamy  existent  in  the  coun- 


44  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

try,  though  two  American  Presidents,  Fillmore 
and  Pierce,  had  appointed  Brigham  governor  of 
the  new  Territory. 

Secure  in  their  desert  fastnesses,  the  apostles  of 
animalism  were  allowed  to  pursue  their  polyga 
mous  ways  unmolested  until  1862,  when  some  un 
easy  Eastern  conscience  succeeded  in  having  Con 
gress  pass  a  law  prohibiting  polygamy  in  the 
Territories  of  the  United  States;  though  no  one 
was  sufficiently  energetic  to  have  the  law  enforced 
during  twenty  years.  Not  until  the  passage  of  the 
"Edmunds  Law"  in  1882,  did  the  Mormon 
troubles  with  the  Federal  authorities  begin.  These 
troubles  were  very  real,  however,  and  not  to  be 
ignored.  Prosecutions  grew,  and  as  the  evidence 
lay  all  about,  convictions  were  not  difficult. 

More  than  one  thousand  "Saints"  were  appre 
hended  and  sent  to  jail.  The  "Edmunds-Tucker 
Act"  of  1887  was  a  still  more  drastic  measure 
for  the  stamping  out  of  polygamy  in  the  United 
States;  "the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  the  Latter- 
day  Saints"  was  disincorporated,  its  property  con 
fiscated,  its  members  disfranchised;  and  finally, 
after  sore  bufferings,  exiles,  and  hardships  from 
what  they  termed  the  "Diocletian  Persecution," 
the  stubborn  polygamous  spirit  was  broken,  and 
the  followers  of  Joseph  the  First  came  out  of  their 
hiding-places  and  in  their  prison  stripes,  to  make 
terms  with  the  "persecutor," 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  45 

If  Uncle  Sam  would  only  admit  Utah  to  the 
sisterhood  of  States,  the  Children  of  the  Prophet 
would  be  good;  they  would  abandon  their  long- 
cherished  doctrine  of  plural  marriage;  they  would 
omit  the  pregnant  whisper  on  the  eve  of  elections, 
warning  the  faithful  to  "take  counsel"  how  they 
should  vote;  and  individual  Mormons  should  be 
free  to  choose  their  own  vocations,  without  inter 
ference  or  dictation  from  the  Hierarchy.  As  an 
earnest  of  the  Mormon  change  of  heart,  the  presi 
dent  of  the  Church,  Wilford  Woodruff,  issued  a 
proclamation  that  he  had  received  a  new  revela 
tion  from  on  High,  which  declared  polygamy  no 
longer  essential  to  salvation;  and  since  the  Con 
gress  of  the  United  States  had  seen  fit  to  forbid  it, 
he  would  recommend  its  discontinuance  to  his  fol 
lowers.  This  "Woodruff  Manifesto" — as  it  was 
called — was  issued  September  24,  1890,  and  on  Oc 
tober  6,  next  ensuing,  a  formal  conference  of  all 
Church  officials  was  held  to  confirm  and  endorse 
it  and  make  it  obligatory  upon  all  Mormons  under 
penalty  of  disfellowship.  It  was  made  perfectly 
clear — not  only  would  no  more  plural  marriages 
be  solemnized,  but  all  such  existing  prior  to  the 
"Manifesto"  were  annulled  as  to  cohabitation, 
though  it  was  agreed  that  existent  plural  wives 
with  their  children  should  be  cared  for.  President 
Woodruff,  Lorenzo  Snow,  Joseph  F.  Smith, 
George  Q.  Cannon,  and  Anthon  Lund,  apostles, 


46  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

all  testified  that  the  Woodruff  manifesto  meant 
giving  up  plural  marriages  already  existing. 

With  these  fair  promises,  the  "Saints"  began 
anew  the  battle  for  Statehood.  Gentile  residents 
of  Utah,  studying  the  Mormon  character  at  close 
range,  gravely  shook  their  heads,  and  warned  the 
country  that  the  "Manifesto"  was  merely  a  ruse 
to  escape  Federal  espionage  and  place  the  regula 
tion  of  marriage  laws  in  Mormon  hands.  Senator 
Edmunds,  and  some  others,  opposed  the  Statehood 
bill  in  Congress,  but  its  friends  triumphed  over  all 
opposition,  and  Utah  was  admitted  to  the  Union 
in  1896,  with  anti-polygamy  and  the  other  pro 
visions  cited,  nominated  in  the  bond. 

Not  until  the  Smoot  case  came  up  in  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States,  did  the  country  learn  the  full 
extent  of  Mormon  perfidy  in  the  matter  of  State 
hood  pledges,  or  get  a  side-light  on  the  Mormons' 
"friends."  Reed  Smoot,  one  of  the  twelve  apostles 
of  the  Mormon  hierarchy,  presented  his  credentials 
as  a  United  States  Senator  from  the  State  of  Utah, 
February  23,  1903.  On  the  same  day  and  at 
the  same  hour,  there  was  filed  with  the  Senate  a 
protest  against  seating  him,  signed  by  eighteen  of 
the  most  prominent  and  reputable  Gentile  residents 
of  Utah. 

Then  for  nearly  a  year  the  non-Mormon  world 
rang  with  protests,  and  many  pages  of  the  Con 
gressional  Record  were  devoted  each  morning  to 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  47 

the  numberless  petitions  pouring  in  upon  every 
Senator  in  the  body — irrespective  of  party — from 
churches,  temperance  societies,  women's  clubs, 
singing  schools,  Christian  Endeavorers,  Y.  M. 
C.  A.'s,  and  every  known  organization  dedicated 
to  the  up-lift,  upraying  for  an  investigation  of  the 
charges  against  the  Hon.  Reed  Smoot."  Yet  it 
was  January  27,  1904,  before  a  resolution  was 
"put  through"  the  Senate  to  refer  the  case  to  the 
Committee  on  Privileges  and  Elections. 

This  committee  comprised  eight  Republicans 
and  5  Democrats;  the  Republican  members  were 
Senators  Burrows  (chairman),  Hoar,  McCombas, 
Foraker,  Depew,  Dillingham,  Beveridge,  and 
Hopkins;  and  the  Democrats,  Pettus,  Bailey,  Du- 
bois,  Overman,  and  Clarke  of  Arkansas.  Later, 
Senators  Knox  and  Dolliver  were  appointed  to 
the  vacancies  caused  by  the  deaths  of  Hoar  and 
McComas,  and  Senator  Frazier  of  Tennessee  took 
the  place  of  Senator  Clarke  of  Arkansas,  who,  it 
was  said,  resigned  from  the  Committee  in  disgust 
at  the  filthy  testimony  elicited  from  President 
Joseph  F.  Smith,  head  of  the  Mormon  system. 

For  two  years  and  four  months,  this  Senate  tri 
bunal  examined  witnesses,  and  weighed  evidence; 
then  on  June  n,  1906,  Chairman  Burrows  (of 
Michigan)  announced  to  the  Senate  that,  "in  the 
judgment  of  a  majority  of  the  Committee  on 
Privileges  and  Elections,  Reed  Smoot  is  not  en- 


48  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

titled  to  a  seat  in  the  United  States  Senate."  The 
vote  in  committee  stood  8  to  5,  Senators  Burrows, 
Depew,  and  Dolliver  uniting  with  all  the  Demo 
cratic  members  for  Smoot's  expulsion;  whilst 
Foraker,  Knox,  Beveridge,  Hopkins  and  Dilling- 
ham  voted  for  his  retention,  and  signed  a  "mi 
nority  report"  dissenting  from  the  majority  ver 
dict.  When  the  "Burrows  Resolution"  was 
offered  in  the  Senate  these  five  "friendly"  dis 
senters  prevented  a  vote  on  it,  and  any  further  con 
sideration  of  the  question  at  that  time.  Again  in 
December  (1906)  they  side-tracked  it  with  a  con 
venient  motion  for  postponement.  When  it  could 
be  no  longer  deferred  and  reached  the  final  debate 
in  the  Senate  in  February,  1907,  the  ablest  of  the 
"friends" — Senators  Knox,  Foraker,  and  Beve 
ridge — exhausted  their  learning,  eloquence,  and 
legal  sophistries,  in  defense  of  the  Mormon 
Senator.  Senator  Knox  argued  the  constitutional 
end  of  the  question — he  having  studied  that  noble 
"guardian  of  our  liberties"  with  special  reference 
to  making  it  fit  all  emergencies  like  the  Smoot 
case ;  Senator  Foraker,  able  lawyer  that  he  is,  was 
— through  some  subtle  influence — inveigled  into 
putting  forth  a  blanket  apology  for  polygamy, 
upon  the  historic  ground  that  back  in  the  fifties  the 
United  States  Government  had  seemed  to  lend  a 
quasi-official  sanction  to  it,  in  the  appointment  of 
Brigham  Young  by  Presidents  Fillmore  and 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  49 

Pierce.  Just  why  Senator  Foraker  should  have 
overlooked  the  attitude  of  American  presidents 
much  nearer  to  him — as  evinced  in  the  ringing 
anti-polygamy  messages  of  Grant,  Hayes,  Gar- 
field,  Arthur,  Cleveland,  and  Harrison— will  prob 
ably  never  be  known.  Senator  Beveridge — a 
veritable  Hotspur  in  every  legislative  battle  for 
humanity — dwelt  long  and  feelingly  upon  the 
many  amiable  qualities,  and  virtuous  freedom  from 
polygamous  taint,  of  the  Hon.  Reed  Smoot  him 
self,  and  dramatically  likened  him  to  the  much 
abused  Dreyfus  of  France !  All  of  which  is  what 
the  late  Bill  Arp  would  term,  "mighty  inter-^tin.n 
Senator  Burrows,  speaking  for  the  opposition, 
quietly  called  attention  to  two  salient  points  in  the 
controversy :  ( i )  That  the  contention  that  po 
lygamy  as  a  religious  tenet  was  under  the  Con 
stitutional  guarantee  of  religious  freedom  to  all, 
had  been  conclusively  settled  by  repeated  decisions 
of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  ruling  against 
any  such  absurdity;  and  Senator  Burrows  recited 
the  cases  in  detail,  declaring  bigamy  and  polygamy 
crimes  by  the  laws  of  all  civilized  countries,  and 
crimes  against  decency  and  morality.  To  advocate 
them  upon  religious  grounds,  is  to  offend  the  com 
mon  sense  of  mankind.  (2)  That  Reed  Smoot 
was  not  on  trial  as  a  polygamist;  although  one  wit 
ness,  on  his  own  responsibility  and  without  suffi 
cient  evidence,  had  made  the  charge,  it  was  not 


50  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

contained  in  the  main  protest,  which  recited  that 
"Reed  Smoot  is  one  of  a  self-perpetuating  body  of 
fifteen  men,  who  constituting  the  ruling  authorities 
of  the  Mormon  Church,  claim  supreme  authority 
divinely  sanctioned,  to  shape  the  belief  and  control 
the  conduct  of  their  followers  in  all  matters  what 
soever,  civil  and  religious;  who  thus  uniting  in 
themselves  the  functions  of  Church  and  State,  in 
culcate  and  encourage  polygamy,  and  by  all  the 
means  in  their  power,  protect  and  honor  those 
who,  with  themselves,  violate  the  laws  of  the  land 
and  engage  in  practices  destructive  of  the  family 
and  the  home." 

Reading  further  from  the  Majority  Report, 
Senator  Burrows  said:  UA  sufficient  number  of 
specific  instances  of  the  taking  of  plural  wives 
since  the  Manifesto  of  1890,  have  been  shown  by 
the  testimony,  to  demonstrate  the  fact  that  the 
leaders  of  this  church — the  'First  Presidency  and 
the  Twelve  Apostles' — connive  at  the  practice,  and 
have  done  so  ever  since  the  issuance  of  the  'mani 
festo'  purporting  to  put  an  end  to  it."  Among  the 
"specific  instances"  referred  to  were  seven  ruling 
apostles,  President  Smith  himself  having  per 
formed  the  ceremony  for  one  of  them.  President 
Smith  also  confessed  to  living  with  five  wives  at 
that  hearing,  and  to  be  the  father  of  forty-three 
children,  eleven  of  whom  had  been  born  since  the 
Manifesto.  When  asked  by  one  of  his  judges  if 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  51 

he  did  not  know  he  was  violating  the  laws,  the 
prophet  replied:  "I  do  not  claim  that  in  this  I  have 
obeyed  the  law  of  the  land;  but  I  preferred  to  take 
my  chances."  It  was  also  put  in  evidence  that 
President  Smith,  addressing  a  congregation  in  the 
Salt  Lake  Tabernacle,  June,  1904,  had  said  if  he 
were  to  give  up  his  polygamous  mode  of  life  he 
should  expect  to  be  forever  damned,  and  debarred 
from  the  society  of  those  he  held  most  dear  in  the 
hereafter. 

Extracts  from  the  "Book  of  Doctrine  and  Cov 
enants" — the  Mormon  Bible — inculcating  the  sanc 
tity  of  polygamy,  were  read  before  the  committee, 
and  testimony  given  to  show  that  this  book  is  still 
circulated  among  the  "Saints,"  and  is  regarded  by 
them  as  of  higher  authority  than  the  Manifesto — 
which  by  some  curious  oversight  has  not  been  in 
corporated  in  the  sacred  book! 

The  Senate  Committee  learned  that  Mormon 
leaders  suppressed  testimony  regarding  polygamous 
marriages  by  sending  the  witnesses  out  of  the  coun 
try.  Gentiles  charged  that  records  kept  in  the 
Mormon  Temple  would  disclose  the  fact  that 
plural  marriages  have  been  contracted  in  Utah 
since  the  Manifesto  with  the  sanction  of  the  church 
officials;  but  a  witness  who  was  required  to  bring 
these  records,  refused  to  do  so  after  consulting 
President  Smith.  In  a  word,  it  was  patent  to  the 
Committee  that  "all  sorts  of  shifts,  tricks,  and 


52  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

evasions  were  resorted  to  in  order  to  avoid  service 
of  a  subpoena  to  appear  and  testify";  and  after 
reviewing  all  the  facts  and  the  evidence  in  the  case 
the  Majority  Report  summed  up  its  conclusions  as 
follows : 

"The  conduct  of  Mr.  Smoot  in  this  regard  can 
not  be  separated  from  that  of  his  associates  in  the 
government  of  the  Mormon  Church.  Whatever 
his  private  opinions,  or  his  private  conduct,  he 
stands  before  the  world  as  an  integral  part  of  an 
organization  which  counsels,  encourages,  and  ap 
proves  polygamy;  which  not  only  fails  to  discipline 
those  who  break  the  laws,  but  loads  with  honors 
and  favors  the  most  noted  polygamists  among 
them.  It  is  an  elementary  principle  of  law  that 
where  two  or  more  persons  are  associated  together 
in  an  act,  organization,  enterprise,  or  course  of  con 
duct,  which  is  in  its  character  or  purpose  unlawful, 
the  act  of  any  one  of  them  is  the  act  of  all;  and  the 
act  of  any  number  of  them  is  the  act  of  each  one. 
But  the  complicity  of  Mr.  Smoot  in  the  conduct  of 
Mormon  leaders,  does  not  consist  wholly  in  the  fact 
that  he  is  one  of  them.  By  repeated  acts,  and  in  a 
number  of  instances,  Mr.  Smoot  has  given  active 
aid  and  support  to  the  violators  of  State  laws  and 
common  decency.  By  his  own  admission  he  helped 
to  make  Joseph  Smith  president,  and  repeatedly 
voted  to  sustain  him  after  full  knowledge  of  his 
polygamous  living;  he  also  helped  to  select  Heber 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  53 

J.  Grant,  a  notorious  polygamist,  as  president  of  a 
mission;  he  voted  for  Charles  W.  Penrose  as  an 
apostle  after  testimony  given  in  this  investigation 
proved  him  to  be  a  polygamist.  As  a  trustee  of 
Brigham  Young  University,  Mr.  Smoot  made  no 
protest  against  retaining  Benjamin  Cluff,  Jr.,  a 
noted  polygamist,  as  president  of  that  institution, 
nor  did  he  protest  against  the  election  of  another 
polygamist  in  Cluff's  stead.  At  no  time  has  he 
uttered  a  syllable  of  protest  against  the  conduct  of 
his  associates,  but  has  sustained  them  both  by  his 
acts  and  by  his  silence.  In  the  judgment  of  the 
Committee,  Mr.  Smoot  is  no  more  entitled  to  a 
seat  in  the  Senate  than  he  would  be  if  he  were 
associating  in  polygamous  cohabitation  with  a  plu 
rality  of  wives." 

Nor  was  the  polygamous  sin  the  only  count  in  the 
Smoot  indictment.  He  admitted  before  his  judges 
that  he  had  gone  through  the  "endowment"  cere 
monies  in  the  Mormon  Temple — that  sanctissimum 
sanctorum  of  the  Latter-day  worshippers — whose 
threshold  has  never  been  profaned  by  Gentile  foot; 
and  a  number  of  witnesses  testified  that  the  "oath 
of  vengeance" — or  oath  of  "blood  atonement"  is 
part  of  these  "endowment"  rites.  A  copy  of  this 
oath  was  read  before  the  Senate  Committee : 

"I  do  solemnly  promise  and  vow  that  I  will 
never  cease  to  pray  and  importune  High  Heaven 
to  avenge  the  blood  of  the  prophets  (Joseph  and 


54  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

Hyrum  Smith)  upon  this  nation  (the  United 
States),  and  that  I  will  teach  this  to  my  children's 
children  unto  the  third  and  fourth  generation." 

An  effort  was  made  to  discredit  this  testimony 
as  to  the  "endowment  oath,"  by  impeaching  the 
veracity  of  three  of  the  witnesses;  but  as  this  im 
peachment  rested  on  the  word  of  Mormons  only,  it 
did  not  weigh  greatly  with  the  lawyers  of  that 
Committee  who  had  for  months  been  taking  obser 
vations  of  Mormon  veracity.  A  witness  called  in 
Smoot's  behalf,  a  Mr.  Dougall,  who  corroborated 
the  testimony  in  regard  to  the  "endowment  oath," 
was  not  even  challenged  by  Smoot's  attorneys. 

Concerning  the  Committee  hearings  in  the 
Smoot  case,  Senator  Dubois,  of  Idaho,  speaking  in 
the  Senate  on  the  "Burrows  Resolution,"  said: 
"Not  ten  Senators  would  vote  for  Reed  Smoot  if 
they  had  read  the  testimony." 

However,  on  the  final  ballot — whether  due  to 
ignorance  of  the  testimony,  or  for  some  other 
equally  valid  reason — forty-two  Senators  were  re 
corded  as  voting  to  retain  the  Mormon  Senator, 
and  only  twenty-eight  to  unseat  him — eighteen  be 
ing  paired  and  not  voting.  Senators  Depew  and 
Dolliver,  who  had  voted  in  committee  against 
Smoot,  switched  to  his  support  on  the  Senate  roll- 
call  ;  and  Burrows  alone,  of  all  the  Republican  Sen 
ators  who  reviewed  the  testimony  "from  the 
bench,"  carried  his  colors  into  the  fight  on  the  Sen- 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  55 

ate  floor,  and  held  them  aloft  in  the  moment  of  de 
feat.  As  soon  as  his  resolution  to  expel  the  Mor 
mon  Senator  was  lost,  the  man  from  Michigan 
gave  formal  notice  that  he  would  shortly  introduce 
a  bill  in  the  Senate  asking  an  amendment  to  the 
Federal  Constitution  which  would  give  Congress 
the  power  to  punish  polygamy,  and  he  did ;  but  the 
proposed  amendment  was  referred  to  the  Judiciary 
Committee — and  was  never  more  heard  of.  The 
Mormon's  "friends"  were  sufficiently  numerous  in 
that  committee  to  strangle  even  a  report  on  the 
measure. 

All  praise  to  "the  senior  Senator"  from  Michi 
gan  !  President  Roosevelt  might  brand  him  as  a 
"reactionary,"  and  other  Mormon  allies  go  after 
his  political  scalp — and  get  it;  yet  there  remained 
more  of  honor  on  the  credit  side  of  his  senatorial 
balance-sheet  than  could  be  found  on  the  side  of 
all  those  who  had  saved  their  togas  at  the  sacrifice 
of  their  principles. 

For,  sentiment  and  religion  aside,  this  great  fact 
stands  out  from  the  world's  history — that  thus  far 
in  human  development,  monogamous  marriage  is 
the  one  solid  rock  on  which  to  build  a  decent  so 
ciety — all  else  is  shifting  sand.  It  is  one — and  the 
chief  one — of  "those  fundamental  rules  which  poor 
human  nature  has  worked  out,  with  such  infinite 
pains,  for  its  own  protection;"  it  is  the  only  thing 
which  lends  dignity  and  sanctity  to  the  home;  and 


56  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

anything  which  tends  to  impair  this  institution 
weakens  the  whole  social  fabric. 

Mormonism,  with  its  absurd,  fanatical  doctrine 
anent  "plural  and  celestial  marriage,"  aims  the 
deadliest  blow  at  the  monogamous  idea,  of  any 
thing  else — not  even  excepting  lax  divorce  laws; 
and  it  is  incredible  that  men  holding  the  monoga 
mous  relation,  and  believing  it  the  only  moral 
safeguard  for  their  own  wives  and  daughters, 
should  yet  vote  to  seat  in  the  highest  councils  of 
state  a  representative  and  anointed  emissary  of 
the  Mormon  system!  Yet  such  is  the  merciless 
showing  of  the  Congressional  Record  of 
February  20,  1907,  and  such  is  ever  the 
pitiable  story  of  the  "exigencies  of  practical 
politics." 

Senator  Newlands  of  Navada,  speaking  in  favor 
of  the  "Burrows  Resolution,"  shed  some  light  on 
the  situation  in  stating  that  he  realized  the  gravity 
of  the  possible  consequences  to  himself  in  opposing 
the  Mormon  Church,  "which,"  he  said,  "is  a  strong 
political  factor  in  a  portion  of  Nevada,  and  the 
man  who  antagonizes  that  Church  takes  his  politi 
cal  life  in  his  own  hands" 

O.  W.  Powers,  Territorial  Supreme  Justice  of 
Utah,  appointed  by  President  Cleveland,  testified 
in  the  Smoot  trial:  "The  Mormon  Church  always 
impresses  on  its  followers  the  necessity  for  unity 
of  action;  the  necessity  of  obeying  counsel;  the 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  57 

propriety  of  following  their  'file  leader'  without 
question." 

A.  E.  Hyde,  a  Mormon  mine  owner  of  Salt 
Lake  City,  and  a  son-in-law  of  ex-Senator  Frank 
Cannon,  who  was  stopping  at  the  Shoreham  Hotel 
in  Washinton,  D.  C.,  in  October,  1908,  gave  out  a 
published  interview  in  the  Washington  Herald 
which  contained  the  following  statements:  "The 
Mormon  Church  is  a  perfect  political  organiza 
tion.  If  orders  go  out  the  night  before  election 
day  to  vote  for  a  certain  candidate,  every  Mormon 
unhesitatingly,  and  without  questioning,  will  cast 
his  vote  as  directed."  Mr.  Hyde  stated  that  he  did 
not  approve  of  his  Church  engaging  in  politics, 
because  its  leaders  had  to  promise  the  United  States 
Government,  before  they  were  accorded  Statehood, 
that  the  Church  would  cease  its  political  interfer 
ence.  "But  we  are  backsliders,"  he  added,  "and  we 
are  playing  politics  as  strong  as  we  ever  did.  .  .  . 
Yes,  I  am  a  Mormon,  but  I  am  a  young  Mormon. 
...  Is  polygamy  dead?  Certainly  not;  I  have 
lots  of  friends  who  practice  it,  notwithstanding  all 
testimony  to  the  contrary.  I  could  give  you  the 
names  of  twenty-five  without  difficulty.  And  Mor- 
monism  is  making  wonderful  strides  everywhere 
and  making  converts  every  day." 

Senator  Kearns  of  Utah,  speaking  in  the  United 
States  Senate,  February  28,  1905,  said  of  the  Mor 
mon  Hierarchy:  "Its  political  autonomy  is  com- 


58  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

plete.  Parties  are  nothing  to  it,  except  as  parties 
may  be  used  by  it.  It  adheres  to  the  party  in  power. 
No  man  can  be  elected  to  either  house  of  Congress 
against  its  wish  from  the  States  where  the  Mor 
mons  hold  the  balance  of  power."  In  this  connec 
tion,  it  is  interesting  to  note,  that  of  the  nine  Re 
publican  Senators  who  voted  against  Smoot,  five — 
Burrows,  Hale,  Heminway,  Hansbrough,  and  Kitt- 
redge — have  been  retired  from  public  life  in  the 
five  years  since  the  ballot  was  taken.  Dubois,  a 
Democratic  Senator  in  a  Mormon  stronghold 
(Idaho),  which  had  been  pledged  to  the  Republi 
can  Administration,  in  opposing  Smoot,  simply 
courted  the  political  death  which  was  foreordained 
for  him. 

Yet  while  the  Hierarchy  no  doubt  exercised  a 
directly  controlling  influence  upon  the  Gentile 
Senators  from  the  Western  States  where  Mormon 
voters  mostly  congregate,  it  could  have  had  no  di 
rect  weight  with  those  statesmen  from  the  East  and 
Middle  West,  who  voted  and  wrestled  mightily  in 
prayer  and  argument  for  the  Hon.  Reed  Smoot. 
In  order  for  the  Mormon  influence  to  reach  these, 
it  must  pass  through  some  friendly  Eastern  poten 
tate.  Who  was  Ms  Mormon  medium? 

It  was  the  common  talk  about  Washington  and 
the  capitol  at  the  time,  that  the  pressure  which  com 
pelled  these  unwilling  Senators  to  vote  against  their 
home  traditions,  was  exerted  from  the  White 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  59 

House,  and  that  to  President  Roosevelt  the  Hon. 
Smoot  owed  his  retention  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States. 

Senator  Dubois  openly  charged  it  in  his  "swan 
song";  and  the  Salt  Lake  Tribune — the  anti- 
Mormon  organ  of  Utah — re-echoed  the  charge 
on  its  front  page,  the  morning  of  February  21, 
1907 :  although  President  Roosevelt  was  on  record 
as  having  "advised"  the  Utah  Legislature  prior  to 
the  selection  of  Smoot  not  to  send  a  Mormon  to 
the  United  States  Senate.  Which  presidential  "ad 
vice"  the  Hierarchy  evidently  felt  itself  strong 
enough  to  disregard.  Mr.  Hyde,  in  his  Washing 
ton  Herald  interview,  likewise  stated  that  ua  bar 
gain  was  made  at  the  time  Senator  Smoot  was  fight 
ing  for  his  seat ;  to  deliver  the  Mormon  vote  to  the 
Republicans  in  return  for  the  Administration's  in 
fluence  in  behalf  of  Smoot." 

The  editor  of  the  Tribune  and  others  keeping 
watch  at  Salt  Lake,  believed  the  deal  to  have  been 
consummated  in  the  spring  of  1903  (a  few  months 
after  Smoot's  debut  in  the  Senate),  when  President 
Roosevelt  visited  Salt  Lake  City  and  spoke  in  the 
Mormon  Tabernacle.  A  writer  in  Pearson's 
Magazine  for  September,  1910,  places  the  date 
near  the  close  of  the  1904  presidential  campaign, 
and  sets  forth  the  terms  of  the  pact  as  follows : 
"Theodore  Roosevelt  himself  made  the  bargain 
with  the  Mormon  Church,  which  exists  to  this  day. 


60  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

The  Church  agreed  to  deliver  to  Roosevelt  the 
electoral  votes  of  Utah,  Wyoming,  and  Idaho,  in 
exchange  for  three  things:  (i)  A  cessation  of  the 
agitation  within  the  Republican  party  for  an 
amendment  of  the  Federal  Constitution  giving 
Congress  the  power  to  legislate  concerning  'plural 
marriage';  (2)  a  defence  of  Reed  Smoot,  apostle 
and  representative  of  the  Mormon  hierarchy,  as 
a  Senator  of  the  United  States;  and  (3)  a  dispo 
sition  of  Federal  patronage  in  Utah  and  surround 
ing  States  in  obedience  to  the  wishes  of  the  Hier 
archy,  expressed  to  the  Administration  through 
Apostle  Reed  Smoot." 

This  Pearson's  writer  gives  as  his  authority  for 
this  statement  ua  man  high  in  the  councils  of  the 
Republican  party  in  the  West,  who  supported  both 
Roosevelt  and  Taft,"  and  quotes  from  this  high 
Western  authority  as  follows:  uAs  the  fall  of  1904 
arrived,  the  pressure  of  events  became  too  fierce 
for  Roosevelt  to  stand.  You  will  recall  that  in 
September,  the  Republican  leaders  became  panicky, 
and  none  more  so  than  Roosevelt.  It  looked  to  all 
of  them  as  if  Parker  might  be  elected.  The  sky 
was  black  with  Democratic  gains.  In  that  crisis 
Roosevelt  did  what  any  one  who  knows  him  as 
I  do,  knows  he  will  do,  in  the  thick  of  any  fight 
— use  the  first  weapon  his  hand  can  reach  and 
fight  in  any  way  to  win" !  Shade  of  E.  H. 
Harriman !  Thou  are  vindicated  at  last,  even 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  61 

out    of   the    mouth    of   a    Western    supporter   of 
Theodore ! 

In  the  nature  of  the  case  a  corrupt  political  deal 
of  any  sort  is  difficult  to  prove  by  direct  testimony 
since  usually  the  only  witnesses  to  the  compact  are 
the  criminal  bargainers  themselves.  The  only  way 
to  get  at  the  truth  of  such  bargains  is  by  circum 
stantial  evidence — sometimes  the  most  convincing 
of  any.  Taking  stock,  for  instance,  of  the  political 
and  other  indices  surrounding  the  Smoot  case,  we 
find  that  Utah,  which  in  1896  had  given  Bryan  a 
plurality  of  33,116,  and  McKinley  a  small  margin 
of  2,140  in  1900,  gave  Roosevelt  a  plurality  of 
29,033  in  1904.  Apostle  Hyrum  Smith,  son  of 
Joseph  F.,  speaking  to  his  congregation  in  the 
Tabernacle  on  April  5,  1905,  said:  "I  want  to  say 
this:  we  believe  that  in  President  Roosevelt  we 
have  a  friend;  and  we  believe  that  in  the  Latter- 
day  Saints  President  Roosevelt  has  the  greatest 
friendship  among  them;  that  there  are  no  people 
in  the  world  who  are  more  friendly  to  him,  and 
will  remain  friendly  unto  him  just  so  long  as  he 
remains  true,  as  he  has  been — to  the  cause  of  hu 
manity  !"  We  all  know  the  Mormon  interpreta 
tion  of  "the  cause  of  humanity."  Again,  in  the 
Salt  Lake  Tabernacle,  on  April  4,  1909,  Elder 
Benjamin  E.  Rich — a  reputed  three-ply  polygamist 
and  head  of  the  Eastern  Mormon  Missions — gave 
out  a  statement  which  was  later  published  in  the 


62  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

Liahona,  the  official  organ  of  the  Mormon  Church, 
of  date  October  15,  1909:  "I  want  to  say  to  you 
that  this  people  never  had  a  better  friend  in  the 
White  House  than  Theodore  Roosevelt  There 
has  never  been  a  man  there  that  understood  this 
people  as  he  understood  them.  He  has  been,  and 
is,  your  friend.  Many  a  conversation  have  I  had 
with  him  concerning  the  struggles  of  this  people 
and  the  building-up  of  this  land  with  the  aid  of  our 
fathers." 

Another  interesting  sidelight  on  the  Roosevelt- 
Morman  pact  was  furnished  in  the  spring  of  1909, 
when  Senator  Hopkins  of  Illinois  was  fighting  for 
re-election  to  the  United  States  Senate.  Another 
aspirant  for  his  seat — not  Lorimer — brought  out 
Hopkins's  record  in  the  Smoot  trial  in  order  to 
discredit  him.  Whereupon  Hopkins,  to  clear  him 
self,  had  published  in  one  of  the  Chicago  papers  a 
letter  which  he  had  received  from  President  Roose 
velt  highly  commending  his  course  in  the  Smoot 
case.  A  similar  letter  from  Roosevelt  to  Senator 
Knox  was  likewise  given  to  the  press. 

If  further  corroboration  be  needed  of  the  en 
tente  cordiale  subsisting  between  Colonel  Roosevelt 
and  the  Latter-day  Saints,  may  it  not  be  found  in 
the  extremely  friendly  and  indulgent  tone  adopted 
toward  Mormonism  in  the  pious  Outlook  since  the 
Colonel  became  "contributing  editor"  ? 

Summing  up  the  evidence  on  the  Pearson's  in- 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  63 

dictment:  Roosevelt  did  receive  the  Mormon  vote 
in  the  1904  election,  and  the  electoral  votes  of  the 
three  States  named;  Reed  Smoot  did  retain  his  seat 
in  the  United  States  Senate,  over  the  emphatic  pro 
test  of  the  whole  non-Mormon  population ;  several 
Gentile  Federal  appointees  were  replaced  by  Mor 
mons;  and  Senator  Burrows's  bill  for  a  constitu 
tional  amendment  aimed  at  polygamy  was  strangled 
in  committee. 

So !   He  who  runs  may  read. 

The  past  two  years,  1910-12,  witnessed  a  con 
siderable  agitation  of  the  Mormon  question  in  the 
Gentile  press.  Several  large  Eastern  dailies  sent 
out  staff  correspondents  to  explore  the  Mormon 
strongholds  of  the  West,  and  printed  their  findings 
at  great  length;  five  sizable  magazines  in  New 
York,  Everbody's,  McClure's,  Cosmopolitan, 
Hampton's,  and  Pearson's — each  contributed  a  ser 
ies  of  articles  to  the  literature  of  what  is  now  called 
"the  Mormon  problem. "  The  burden  of  testi 
mony  brought  in  by  all  these  various  investigators 
and  expositors,  sounds  one  unanimous  note:  that 
polygamy  is  as  rampant  as  ever  under  the  protec 
tion  of  "the  Prophet,"  and  that  he  dominates  his 
followers  absolutely  in  business,  politics,  and  social 
affairs. 

Judson  Welliver,  an  admirer  of  Colonel  Roose 
velt,  writing  in  January  (1910)  number  of 
Hampton's,  on  the  baneful  alliance  between  the 


64  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

Mormon  Church  and  the  Sugar  Trust,  affirmed: 
"There  is  no  body  of  people  in  America  so  per 
fectly  organized,  so  completely  controlled,  politi 
cally,  and  in  business  matters,  as  the  Mormons." 
Alfred  Henry  Lewis,  a  one-time  spell-binder  for 
the  Colonel,  who  after  several  months  residing 
and  spying  in  Mormon  fastnesses,  embodied  his 
impressions  of  "The  Viper  on  the  National  Hearth 
stone"  in  a  graphic  series  in  the  Cosmopolitan 
(1911),  says:  uThe  present  Mormon  attitude  to 
ward  the  Federal  Government  is  that  of  the  cap 
tive.  The  Church — they  say,  through  superior 
force — is  held  in  chains;  and  since  it  is  permitted 
one  to  mislead  a  foe,  the  Mormons  are  free  to  lie 
to  the  United  States  or  State  authorities,  whenever 
and  wherever  the  truth  would  prove  ill-timed. 
That  is  the  Mormon  creed.  Every  one  from 
Prophet  Smith  and  the  twelve  apostles — including 
Senator  Smoot — down  to  the  last  mean  handful  of 
proselytes  brought  from  Europe,  is  at  liberty  to  lie ; 
he  may  deny  his  "blood  atonement"  oath,  deny  his 
hatred  of  our  Government,  deny  polygamy,  deny 
political  domination,  deny  the  numbers,  the  wealth, 
the  purpose,  the  power,  of  the  Mormon  Church." 
If  this  be  true,  Prophet  Smith  must  have  felt 
pretty  secure  in  the  protection  of  his  "friend"  in 
the  White  House,  to  have  spoken  as  frankly  to  the 
Senate  Committee  as  he  did  concerning  his  marital 
pluralities. 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  65 

Touching  the  prevalence  of  present-day  polyg 
amy,  the  New  York  World  correspondent  testified 
that,  at  the  Eighty-first  Annual  Conference  of  the 
Mormon  Church,  held  on  April  6,  1911,  eleven  of 
the  twenty-five  highest  church  officials  were  known 
to  be  polygamists;  and  the  Salt  Lake  Tribune,  on 
various  dates  during  the  year  1910-11,  published 
the  names  of  230  polygamists,  with  the  names  of 
their  wives  and  places  of  residence,  and  no  denial 
was  offered. 

Mormon  statistics  reveal  a  startling  growth  of 
the  propaganda  abroad,  since  Smoot's  election  to 
the  Senate.  The  outcome  of  his  trial  was  cited  by 
Mormon  missionaries  as  a  complete  vindication  of 
their  system ;  and  their  converts  increased  from  600 
per  year  in  1906,  to  1,200  in  1908.  Mormon 
immigrants  to  this  country,  from  1903  to  1910, 
increased  proportionately. 

George  B.  Billings,  commissioner  of  immigra 
tion  at  Boston,  on  November  2,  1908,  gave  out  the 
statement:  "About  700  to  800  Mormon  converts, 
a  majority  of  whom  are  probably  women,  pass 
through  this  port  annually."  Immigration  officials 
claim  that  our  laws,  as  at  present  constituted,  are 
inadequate  to  debar  these  Mormon  immigrants, 
who  are  coached  by  missionaries  abroad,  how  to 
answer  the  inspectors  here,  are  provided  with 
"show  money,"  and  otherwise  find  their  pathway 
smoothed  by  Mormon  agents  at  the  various  ports 


66  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

of  entry.  A  high  Government  official  who  would 
not  allow  the  use  of  his  name — the  usual  official 
reticence — said  at  Washington,  in  June,  1911: 
"When  Reed  Smoot  retires  from  the  United  States 
Senate  we  may  get  some  legislation  that  will  en 
able  us  to  keep  Mormons  out  of  the  country. 
Under  the  present  laws  our  hands  are  tied  so 
tightly  that  it  is  virtually  impossible  to  prevent 
polygamists  from  entering."  The  only  thing  neces 
sary  to  evade  the  law  is  for  the  immigrant  to  pro 
fess  his  or  her — usually  her — disbelief  in  polyg 
amy;  and  there  are  instances  of  inspectors  being 
punished — on  complaint  of  Senator  Smoot — for 
questioning  too  closely  these  women  converts  to  the 
Latter-day  faith.  When  one  remembers  how  easily 
under  the  Mormon  code — as  defined  by  Alfred 
Henry — the  only  difficulty  of  the  law  may  be  met; 
and  that  as  a  matter  of  fact,  these  Mormon  women 
from  Europe — in  many  cases  young  and  silly  girls 
— are  "sealed"  to  the  polygamous  patriots  of  Utah 
and  Idaho  before  they  leave  home,  there  is  no  prac 
tical  difference — to  the  non-Mormon  understand 
ing — between  the  law  concerning  Mormon  aliens, 
as  at  present  administered,  and  the  licensing  of 
"white  slave  traffic." 

Mr.  Hans  P.  Freece,  the  young  man  commis 
sioned  by  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Home  Mis 
sions  to  expose  the  Mormon  system  at  home  and 
abroad,  is  of  the  opinion,  that  if  the  foreign  supply 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  67 

could  be  shut  off,  Mormonism  would  soon  die  of 
inanition,  due  to  the  death  or  apostasy  of  the 
American-born  "saints." 

Mr.  Freece,  who  with  his  wife,  spent  a  year 
(1910-11)  in  an  anti-Mormon  campaign  in 
Europe,  returned  to  this  country  in  the  fall  of 
1911  with  a  written  endorsement  of  his  work  in 
England,  signed  by  a  dozen  or  more  distinguished 
English  clergymen,  municipal  dignitaries,  and  mem 
bers  of  Parliament — among  the  last-mentioned,  a 
son  of  Mrs.  Humphrey  Ward.  Shortly  after  his 
return,  Mr.  Freece  chancing  in  the  office  of  the 
Outlook  one  day,  was  asked  by  a  member  of  the 
staff,  Mr.  Townsend,  why  he  did  not  call  to  talk 
with  Colonel  Roosevelt  about  his  work;  that  "the 
Colonel  was  much  interested  in  the  Mormon  ques 
tion."  On  Mr.  Freece's  replying  that  while  he 
would  be  very  glad  to  talk  with  Colonel  Roosevelt 
on  the  subject  if  he  wished  it,  he  did  not  care  to 
intrude  on  him  uninvited,  Mr.  Townsend  said  that 
he  thought  that  an  interview  "could  be  arranged." 

Then,  about  September  I5th,  Mr.  Freece  re 
ceived  a  note  from  Mr.  Frank  Harper,  Roosevelt's 
private  secretary,  saying  the  Colonel  would  be  glad 
to  see  him  at  a  certain  time,  and  Mr.  Freece  ac 
cordingly  presented  himself  at  the  Outlook  office, 
and  was  at  once  admitted  to  the  Colonel's  presence. 
The  following  dialogue — as  reported  by  Mr. 
Freece — ensued : 


68  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

Mr.  Freece:  "I  called  to  see  you  at  the  sugges 
tion  of  Mr.  Townsend  and  your  secretary,  Mr. 
Harper,  in  regard  to  the  Mormon  question." 

Colonel  Roosevelt:   "Yes,  yes." 

Mr.  Freece:  "I  don't  know,  Mr.  Roosevelt, 
whether  you  are  aware  of  the  fact,  that  Mormon 
elders,  in  order  to  carry  on  their  propaganda  with 
most  success,  do  not  hold  up  the  lives  of  their  great 
men  as  examples,  to  bolster  their  system,  but  are 
using  the  name  of  Theodore  Roosevelt  for  that 
purpose." 

Mr.  Freece  then  produced  a  copy  of  the  Mormon 
magazine  containing  the  statement  from  Benjamin 
E.  Rich,  before  mentioned  in  this  chapter,  and  laid 
it  before  his  illustrious  colloquist. 

Colonel  Roosevelt:  "Well,  that  is  only  his  opin 
ion.  I  do  not  know  that  I  am  the  best  friend  they 
ever  had." 

Mr.  Freece:  "True,  it  is  only  his  opinion;  but 
the  matter  in  which  I  am  interested  is  to  know 
whether  this  Mormon  high-priest  and  reputed 
polygamist  has  been  invited  by  you  many  times  to 
discuss  Mormonism  with  you?" 

Colonel  Roosevelt:  "Yes  I  know  Ben  Rich,  who 
has  been  down  to  the  White  House  to  talk  it  over 
with  me  quite  a  number  of  times.  But  it  does  not 
say  here  that  the  conversation  was  favorable  to  the 
Mormons.  Only  fools  and  knaves  can  get  that  out 
of  it !"  (This  rings  true  and  life-like.) 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  69 

Mr.  Freece:  "Mr.  Roosevelt,  it  seems  to  me, 
that  when  Mr.  Rich  states  that  he  had  been  in 
numerous  conversations  with  you  about  Mormon- 
ism,  and  then  gives  as  his  conclusion  that  you  are 
'the  best  friend  the  Mormons  ever  had,'  it  would 
follow  in  the  minds  of  most  persons  that  your  part 
of  the  conversation  had  been  friendly  to  the  sys 
tem.  However,  I  was  more  particularly  anxious 
to  know  whether  Ben  Rich  had  been  invited  to  the 
White  House.  Another  thing  I  wish  to  speak 
about:  when  I  was  in  Europe  this  summer  the 
Mormons  there  had  a  letter  which  they  claimed 
had  been  written  by  you  in  defence  of  Mormonism. 
They  printed  it  in  the  English,  Danish  and  Dutch 
languages,  and  distributed  it  to  the  people,  claim 
ing  if  the  great  ex-President  of  the  United  States 
spoke  kind  words  for  Mormons,  the  system  must  be 
all  right." 

Colonel  Roosevelt:  "Well,  what  was  that 
letter?" 

Mr.  Freece:  "It  was  the  letter  which  they  claim 
was  written  by  you  to  Isaac  Russell,  a  Mormon  mis 
sionary,  and  printed  in  Collier's  Weekly  last  April. 

Colonel  Roosevelt:  "Oh,  yes,  I  wrote  that  let 
ter,  and  I  am  perfectly  willing  that  the  Mormons 
should  use  it  if  they  print  the  entire  letter." 

Mr.  Freece:  "The  part  I  was  interested  in  was 
the  statement  that  your  detectives  out  West  were 
not  able  to  find  any  cases  of  new  polygamy?" 


70  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

Colonel  Roosevelt:   "Yes,  that's  true." 

Mr.  Freece:  "Well,  when  you  were  President, 
and  Mr.  Smoot  was  on  trial,  a  number  of  men,  such 
as  Merrill,  Hickman,  Reynolds,  and  others,  testi 
fied  under  oath  that  they  had  married  new  wives 
since  the  Manifesto,  and  the  chairman  of  the  Sen 
ate  Committee  declared  in  his  report  that  such 
prominent  Mormons  as  Taylor,  Cowley,  Teasdale, 
and  others,  also  had  taken  new  polygamous  wives." 

Colonel  Roosevelt:   "I  do  not  know  those  men." 

Mr.  Freece:  "Perhaps  not,  but  you  were  cog 
nizant  of  the  sworn  testimony,  were  you  not?" 

Colonel  Roosevelt:  "Well,  I  did  not  pay  much 
attention  to  the  testimony,  but  I  sent  my  detectives 
to  look  into  the  matter,  and  I  printed  their  report. 
They  were  the  best  I  had  on  the  force." 

Mr.  Freece:  "It  seems  very  strange  that  those 
detectives  could  not  find  where  these  prominent 
Mormons  were  living;  because  everybody  in  Salt 
Lake  knows  where  they  live.  Inquiry  anywhere 
would  have  revealed  their  residences." 

Colonel  Roosevelt:  "I  cannot  help  that.  I  sent 
them  out,  they  brought  back  the  report,  and  I 
printed  it." 

Mr.  Freece:  "Furthermore,  since  that  official 
report  was  printed,  the  Salt  Lake  Tribune  has  pub 
lished  the  names  of  over  230  men  who  have  rec 
ently  taken  plural  wives.  The  Tribune  gives  the 
names  of  most  of  the  wives,  where  the  ceremony 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  71 

was  performed,  where  the  parties  are  now  living, 
and  in  some  instances  the  number  of  children  that 
have  been  born." 

Colonel  Roosevelt,  rising  and  speaking  angrily: 
"I  do  not  care  what  the  Tribune  prints.  I  wouldn't 
believe  it  under  oath — any  quicker  than  I  would 
the  New  York  World,  or  Hampton's  Magazine,  or 
any  of  the  Hearst  papers !"  And  with  this  parting 
shot,  the  Colonel  turned  his  back  abruptly  on  his 
invited  caller,  and  stalked  across  the  room  to  begin 
conversation  with  another  visitor. 

Space  forbids  giving  the  full  text  of  Colonel 
Roosevelt's  letter  to  Elder  Russell,  of  date  Feb 
ruary  17,  1911, — owing  to  the  Colonel's  copious 
epistolary  style, — which  the  Mormons  had  found  so 
valuable  in  enlisting  foreign  recruits ;  but  it  may  be 
found,  in  all  its  wealth  of  expletive  and  tergiversa 
tion,  in  Collier's  Weekly  of  date  April  15,  1911. 
I  will  close  this  chapter  with  a  few  choice  extracts 
from  it,  and  brief  comment  thereon.  uMy  dear 
Mr.  Russell :  I  thank  you  for  your  letter  calling  my 
attention  to  the  charges  made  against  me  in  con 
nection  with  an  alleged  bargain  with  the  Mormon 
Church.  The  letter  you  enclosed  contains  a  quo 
tation  from  a  magazine  which  states" — here  fol 
lowed  the  quoted  passage  from  Pearson's,  and  the 
usual  vehement  denial:  uNo  such  bargain  was  ever 
in  any  way,  directly  or  indirectly,  suggested  to,  or 
considered  by  me.  It  is  not  merely  an  atrocious 


72  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

falsehood,  but  it  could  by  no  possibility  be  any 
thing  but  a  falsehood!" — Judge  Parker  will  recall 
the  peculiar  ictus  of  this  phrase.  "Neither  the 
Church,  nor  any  one  on  behalf  of  the  Church,  ever 
agreed  to  deliver  to  me  the  votes  of  the  States  men 
tioned,  nor  was  any  allusion  to  the  matter  ever 
made  to  me.  Neither  Senator  Smoot,  nor  any 
other  citizen  of  Utah,  was,  as  far  as  I  know,  con 
sulted  about  the  patronage  in  the  States  surround 
ing  Utah,  nor  did  the  Mormon  hierarchy,  through 
Senator  Smoot  or  any  one  else,  ever  express  a  single 
wish  in  connection  with  that  patronage.  ...  As 
to  the  cessation  for  the  movement  for  Federal  con 
trol  of  marriage,  including  divorce  and  polygamy, 
so  far  as  I  know,  there  never  was  such  cessation; 
personally,  I  have  always  favored  such  control. 
.  .  .  Whether  it  is  especially  needed  as  regards 
polygamous  marriage,  I  cannot  say.  .  .  .  On  one 
occasion  while  I  was  President,  a  number  of  charges 
were  made  about  these  polygamous  marriages  in 
Idaho,  Wyoming,  and  Utah,  charges  against  some 
of  our  Federal  officials  even.  .  .  .  A  'very  thorough 
investigation  was  made,  and  the  charges  were 
proved  to  be  without  the  smallest  basis  of  fact.  It 
was  finally  found,  a  fourth-class  postmistress ,  whose 
earnings  were  about  $2$  per  year — an  old  woman 
— had  been  plurally  married  about  thirty  years 
previously,  but  had  long  since  ceased  living  with 
her  husband!"  (I  respectfully  submit,  that  this 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  73 

presidential  investigator,  universal  regulator,  and 
judge-of-all-the-earth,  having  run  to  cover  this  piti 
ful  offender,  was  bound,  upon  every  principle  of 
humanity — to  either  find  this  poor  woman  another 
husband,  or  raise  her  salary.)  T.  R.  affirms  fur 
ther,  that  not  only  were  his  government  officials 
found  blameless  as  to  polygamy,  "but  incidentally, 
the  investigators  were  unable  to  find  a  single  case 
of  polygamous  marriage  entered  into  since  the 
practice  had  been  professedly  abandoned."  .  .  . 
And  I  may  add,  every  Mormon  with  whom  I 
spoke,  assured  me  that  since  the  public  renuncia 
tion  of  polygamy,  the  law  had  been  observed  in 
this  respect,  just  as  in  others.  ...  As  for  the  case 
of  Senator  Smoot,  he  came  to  me  of  his  own  ac 
cord,  and  not  only  assured  me  that  he  was  not  a 
polygamist,  but  that  he  had  never  had  relations 
with  any  woman  except  his  own  wife.  .  .  .  He  also 
assured  me  that  he  had  always  done  everything  he 
could  to  have  the  law  about  polygamy  obeyed,  and 
most  strongly  upheld  his  Church's  position  in  its 
public  renunciation  of  polygamy.  .  .  .  /  looked 
into  the  facts  very  thoroughly" — it  will  be  recalled 
that  he  told  Mr.  Freece  that  he  paid  little  attention 
to  the  testimony — "became  convinced  that  Senator 
Smoot  had  told  me  the  truth,  and  treated  him  ex 
actly  as  I  did  all  other  Senators — that  is,  strictly 
on  his  merits  as  a  public  servant.  I  did  not  inter 
fere  in  any  way  with  his  retention  in  the  Senate," 


74  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

etc.,  etc.,  etc.  This  simple,  child-like  acceptance  by 
T.  R. — not  only  of  the  Vestal-virgin  professions 
of  the  Honorable  Smoot,  but  of  all  the  other  tales 
told  him  by  his  Mormon  informers  touching  the 
existence  of  polygamy  in  their  territory,  makes  one 
of  the  most  affecting  chapters  in  his  most  remark 
able  history.  He  who  is  known  to  be  so  sensitive 
to  the  presence  of  liars,  that  he  has  developed  a 
Sherlock-Holmes  faculty  for  spotting  them  in  all 
sorts  of  disguises,  was  yet  unable  to  find  a  single 
Mormon  witness  whom  he  deemed  worthy  of  mem 
bership  in  his  favorite  Club! 

And  yet  his  dear  special-pleader  and  hero-wor 
shipping  delineator,  Alfred  Henry  Lewis,  says  that 
it  is  the  cardinal  tenet  in  the  Mormon  creed — to 
lie!  How  will  Alfred  Henry  and  the  Colonel 
ever  "get  together"  on  the  Mormon  question! 

T.  R.  concludes  his  disposition  of  the  charges 
in  the  Russell  letter  as  follows:  "I  have  thus  gone 
over,  point  by  point,  the  infamous  accusations  made 
by  the  writer,  whoever  he  was,  whom  you  quoted" 
—  (Richard  Barry,  another  special  writer  disposed 
to  deal  gently  with  the  Colonel  for  the  most  part) 
"accusations  which  brand  with  infamy  the  man  who 
made  them,  and  also  the  magazine  editor  who  pub 
lished  them" — (Pearson's,  another  dear  friend 
and  admirer,  alas — this  is  heart-breaking!) — "and 
any  one  who  quotes  them."  (This  gets  the  "in 
famous  brand"  upon  the  Rev.  R.  M.  Stevenson,  a 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  75 

Presbyterian  divine,  and  president  of  Westminster 
College  in  Salt  Lake  City,  and  upon  my  unworthy 
self.)  Here  the  Colonel  remarks  further  to  the 
appreciative  Russell:  "There  is  a  peculiar  infamy 
in  this  species  of  slander,  and  the  men  engaged  in 
it,  do  not  stand  one  whit  above  any  men  who  have 
really  taken  part  in  the  practices  which  they  affect 
to  denounce.  So  much  for  these  slanderers.  Now 
a  word  to  the  Mormons" — but  time  and  space  call 
a  halt — you  can  find  it  all  in  Collier's.  In  brief, 
T.  R.  concludes  his  Mormon  letter  with  a  warning 
so  Pickwickian  that  one  could  imagine  the  "Saints*1 
laughing  at  it — except  that  a  Mormon  sense  of 
humor  is  unthinkable.  At  least  we  may  fancy  them 
indulging  some  inward  chuckles,  much  as  naughty 
children  chuckle  at  the  drastic  threats  of  a  weak 
mother,  which  long  experience  has  taught  them  she 
will  not  enforce.  Just  how  seriously  the  Mormons 
regarded  the  Roosevelt  rebuke  in  this  letter,  is  suffi 
ciently  evinced  by  their  circulating  it  in  three  lan 
guages  all  over  their  foreign  mission  field  I 

One  only  remaining  thought  is  suggested  by  this 
Roosevelt  Epistle  to  the  Mormons.  We  note  that 
the  gravamen  of  reproof  and  exhortation  is  quickly 
and  adroitly  shifted  from  polygamy  to  race  suicide, 
and  a  comparison  instituted  very  flattering  to  the 
former.  This  sheds  a  new  light  on  Mr.  Roose 
velt's  espousal  of  the  Mormon  cause.  For  what 
ever  the  Mormon's  infirmities  and  short-comings,  it 


76  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

cannot  be  charged  that  "the  artificial  restriction  of 
families"  is  among  them.  He  has  no  sin  of  "will 
ful  sterility"  resting  on  his  soul.  No  wonder  the 
Colonel  loves  him,  aside  from  his  "unity  of  action" 
in  elections !  It  is  all  clear  as  day. 

And  now  lest  I  be  accused  of  presenting  only  one 
side  of  this  Roosevelt-Mormon  picture — for  there 
are  always  at  least  two  sides  to  T.  R. — I  will  state 
that  it  is  a  matter  of  record  that  the  Roosevelt 
preachments  against  polygamy  are  to  be  found  in 
his  public  documents,  as  well  as  his  private  corre 
spondence — though  these  sometimes  become  inter 
changeable.  In  one  of  his  messages  he  even  mildly 
advocated  Federal  control  of  polygamy  and  a  Con 
stitutional  amendment  therefor.  True,  this  was  in 
his  palmy,  sovereign  days,  when  he  was  advocating 
Federal  control  of  pretty  nearly  everything,  and 
holding  the  term  "Federal"  synonymous  with 
"Rooseveltian" ;  still,  the  fact  remains,  he  did  talk 
against  the  Mormon  evil,  and — as  before  recited — 
he  advised  Utah  against  sending  a  Mormon  to  the 
United  States  Senate. 

If  any  one  holds  this  to  be  inconsistent  with  his 
defence  of  Reed  Smoot,  and  otherwise  favoring 
the  Mormons,  it  only  shows  he  hasn't  the  proper 
light  on  T.  R.'s  dual — sometimes  kaleidoscopic, 
personality.  Did  he  not  slap  the  "rich  malefactor" 
with  one  hand,  and  receive  the  Harriman  contribu 
tion  with  the  other?  Has  he  not  vociferously  de- 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  77 

nounced  the  "interests,"  and  granted  immunity  to 
those  "so  friendly"  to  himself?  Scored  the  "cor- 
ruptionists,"  and  protected  the  "court  favorites"? 
And  railed  at  all  the  "bosses"  except  his  own  ac 
complices?  It  will  be  seen  that  T.  R.'s  Mormon 
record  is  precisely  in  line  with  all  his  other 
"policies." 


CHAPTER  IV 

HOW  T.  R.  FOUGHT  THE  "BOSSES"  OF  NEW  MEXICO 
IN  1906-7 

Colonel  Roosevelt's  valiant  boast  that,  in  this 
1912  campaign,  he  is  leading  the  fight  against 
"boss-rule"  and  "machine  politics"  makes  pertinent 
an  illuminative  page  from  his  past,  in  re  of  the  ad 
ministration  of  Herbert  J.  Hagerman,  Territorial 
Governor  of  New  Mexico  from  January  22,  1906, 
to  May  3,  1907.  Hagerman  was  appointed  gov 
ernor  by  President  Roosevelt  upon  the  recommen 
dation  of  Hon.  Ethan  Allen  Hitchcock,  then  Secre 
tary  of  the  Interior,  whose  secretary  of  embassy 
Hagerman  had  been  when  Hitchcock  was  Ambas 
sador  to  Russia. 

In  grieved  tones  and  with  virtuous  mien,  our  for 
mer  President  told  the  new  governor  how  dis 
tressed  he  was  by  the  tales  which  had  reached  his 
ears  of  conditions  in  New  Mexico,  where  political 
free-booters  had  been  for  years  using  the  Republi 
can  organization  for  their  own  selfish  ends — to  ex 
ploit  and  corrupt  the  Territory.  For  this  reason 
he  was  appointing  "a  man  of  the  Hagerman  type" 
— able,  clean,  and  fearless — and,  without  consult 
ing  the  machine  out  there,  in  order  that  he  might 

78 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  79 

have  a  free  hand  in  the  drastic  reforms  he  was  ex 
pected  to  inaugurate,  and  for  which  was  pledged  the 
full  support  of  the  Federal  power. 

In  a  word,  Governor  Hagerman  understood  that 
he  was  given  carte  blanche  to  "clean  up  the  gang" 
in  New  Mexico,  and  forthwith  went  his  unsuspect 
ing  way,  to  the  prompt  and  full  execution  of  his 
appointed  task.  The  principal  members  of  the  New 
Mexican  "gang,"  which  Hagerman  had  been  dele 
gated  to  chastise,  were  H.  O.  Bursum,  chairman  of 
the  Territorial  Republican  Committee  and  Super 
intendent  of  the  Territorial  Prison;  William  H. 
Andrews  (the  notorious  "Bull"  Andrews),  dele 
gate  to  Congress  from  New  Mexico,  and  formerly 
a  member  of  the  Quay  machine  in  Pennsylvania; 
Major  W.  H.  H.  Llewellyn,  United  States  Attor 
ney,  who  posed  as  a  Rough-rider  intimate  of  Roose 
velt;  Attorney-General  Pritchard;  J.  Wallace  Ray- 
nolds.  Territorial  Secretary,  and  Max  Frost,  editor 
of  the  Santa  Fe  New  Mexican. 

The  new  Governor  removed  Bursum  from  the 
office  of  Prison  Superintendent,  after  an  investiga 
tion  revealed  him  nearly  $5,000  short  in  his  ac 
counts — which  he  was  forced  to  refund — and  other 
evidences  of  flagrant  malfeasance;  he  replaced  At 
torney-General  Pritchard  with  Captain  Reid,  and 
made  one  or  two  other  official  changes.  Having 
reported  these  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  at 
Washington,  Hagerman  received  from  the  Presi- 


8o  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

dent  the   following  telegram,   dated   March    13, 
1906: 

"Secretary  Hitchcock  has  shown  me  your  letter. 
I  entirely  approve  of  your  course.  I  shall  give  you 
an  entirely  free  hand  in  the  Territory,  because  I 
hold  you  to  an  absolute  responsibility  for  the  con 
duct  of  affairs.  Remove,  whenever  you  deem  wise, 
the  three  men  whom  you  report  as  unsatisfactory, 
and  any  others  whom  you  find  unsatisfactory.  If 
any  of  my  appointees  hamper  you,  let  me  know  at 
once,  and  I  will  remove  them.  You  are  welcome 
to  show  this  telegram  to  any  one  you  desire. 

"(Signed)     THEODORE  ROOSEVELT." 

How  well  President  Roosevelt  kept  the  pledge 
of  this  telegram,  as  well  as  his  other  promises  of 
support  to  his  reform  appointee,  will  appear  as  this 
narrative — based  on  official  documents — shall  un 
fold. 

Although  the  changes  effected  by  Governor  Ha- 
german  were  all  good,  from  an  administrative  point 
of  view,  and  approved  by  all  honest  citizens  of  the 
Territory,  without  regard  to  party,  his  efforts  to 
cleanse  the  Augean  stables  of  New  Mexican  politics 
quite  naturally  aroused  the  bitterest  antagonism  of 
the  members  of  the  plunderbund,  who  soon  saw 
that  unless  they  could  rid  themselves  of  the  new 
Executive  they  would  have  to  go  out  of  business — 
and  thus  they  began  to  plot  his  downfall.  Before 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  81 

many  months  had  elapsed  they  found  the  President 
of  the  United  States  a  compliant  accessory  to  their 
scheme. 

Had  Hagerman's  faith  in  Roosevelt  been  less 
absolute,  he  might  have  discerned  uthe  cloud  no 
bigger  than  a  man's  hand"  which  was  ultimately  to 
o'ercast  his  whole  sky,  and  cut  short  his  reforming 
career  in  the  Territory,  in  the  following  letter  from 
William  Loeb,  Jr.,  in  March,  1906: 

"I  am  directed  by  the  President  to  ask  whether 
there  is  any  position  under  you,  or  subject  to 
appointment  by  the  President  in  New  Mexico, 
to  which  Captain  George  Curry  can  be  ap 
pointed.  Curry  is  coming  home  soon,  and  the 
President  very  much  wishes  to  provide  him  with  a 
position." 

Governor  Hagerman  replying  that  the  only  posi 
tion  in  the  Territory  open  at  that  writing  was  that 
of  Game  Warden,  Loeb  wrote  again,  in  April  of 
that  year: 

'The  President  doubts  if  Captain  Curry  could 
accept  the  position  of  Game  Warden,  as  the  salary 
is  not  sufficient." 

The  next  time  Governor  Hagerman  encountered 
"the  President's  desire  to  provide  a  place  for  Cap 
tain  Curry"  (one  of  the  Rough-rider  braves  then 
in  the  Philippines),  nearly  a  year  had  elapsed,  and 


82  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

the  President's  move  for  the  accomplishment  of  his 
desire  was  so  disguised  that  the  Governor  did  not 
recognize  it  until  subsequent  events  enabled  him  to 
trace  the  fateful  threads  of  hidden  fire  connecting 
plot  and  plotter. 

In  the  closing  days  of  the  Territorial  Legislature 
which  convened  in  January,  1907,  a  uspite  resolu 
tion"  was  introduced  into  the  Lower  House — which 
had  been  thoroughly  organized  by  Mr.  Bursum,  the 
deposed  Prison  Superintendent — charging  the  Gov 
ernor  with  misconduct,  in  re  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Development  Co.,  and  providing  a  committee  to  be 
appointed  by  the  Speaker,  who  was  bitterly  hostile 
to  Hagerman,  to  investigate  the  charges  and  report 
their  findings  to  the  House. 

The  resolution  was  adopted,  and  the  report  of 
the  committee  was  just  what  was  expected  by  the 
conspirators — one-sided,  false,  and  venomous.  The 
special  message  sent  by  the  Governor,  fully  explain 
ing  his  action  in  the  case,  and  a  perfect  defence  to 
any  one  looking  for  the  truth,  was  ruled  "out  of 
order"  by  the  Speaker;  and  the  message  was  never 
read  nor  communicated  to  the  House  in  any  man 
ner!  The  "report"  was  put  into  the  hands  of  a 
subordinate  attorney  in  the  Department  of  Justice 
at  Washington — a  Mr.  Cooley — who,  without 
waiting  to  hear  a  word  on  the  other  side,  rendered 
a  preliminary  decision  adverse  to  Governor  Hager 
man. 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  83 

And  President  Roosevelt,  also  without  waiting 
to  hear  anything  in  rebuttal,  accepted  this  ex  parte 
"Cooley  Report"  unreservedly,  and  made  it  the  al 
leged  basis  of  his  ultimate  action  in  the  matter.  No 
intimation  of  the  President's  attitude  was  vouch 
safed  to  Governor  Hagerman  at  this  juncture,  how 
ever.  On  the  contrary,  his  friend  Mr.  Barnes,  who 
had  been  in  Washington  in  February,  stated  on  his 
return  that  Secretary  Garfield  (who  had  succeeded 
Hitchcock  as  head  of  the  Interior  Department)  had 
told  him  there  was  no  truth  in  the  rumor  circulat 
ing  in  New  Mexico,  that  the  President  would  re 
quest  Hagerman's  resignation. 

This  statement  being  questioned,  Barnes  tele 
graphed  the  Secretary,  and  received  the  following 
reply : 

"WILL  C.  BARNES, 

"Santa  Fe,  N.  M. 

"Answering  your  telegram,  you  were  correct  in 
quoting  me  as  saying  that  the  Department  approved 
Governor  Hagerman's  efforts  for  honest  adminis 
tration,  and  that  his  removal  was  not  contemplated. 
"(Signed)     J.  R.  GARFIELD." 

Of  the  same  date  as  the  Garfield  telegram 
(March  7) ,  a  letter  from  Mr.  Loeb  informed  Gov 
ernor  Hagerman  that  "the  President  would  like  to 
see  him  at  the  White  House  on  the  morning  of 
March  28";  but  upon  Hagerman's  signifying  his 


84  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

readiness  to  comply,  the  invitation  was  withdrawn 
by  telegram  on  March  20. 

Garfield  likewise  wired  the  Governor:  "I  prefer 
that  you  postpone  your  leave  of  absence  for  a  few 
weeks." 

Finally,  on  April  8,  Hagerman  was  notified  that 
"the  Secretary  would  be  pleased  to  see  him  in  Wash 
ington  whenever  it  was  convenient  for  him  to 
come";  and  he  left  Santa  Fe  immediately,  accom 
panied  by  Mr.  Levi  Hughes,  the  newly  appointed 
Territorial  Treasurer,  arriving  in  Washington  the 
night  of  April  12. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  I3th,  they  called  on 
Secretary  Garfield,  who  told  Hagerman  the  Presi 
dent  was  waiting  to  see  him,  and  instructed  him  to 
report  at  the  White  House  at  1 1  o'clock.  Neither 
from  the  previous  correspondence,  nor  from  the 
Secretary  in  this  interview,  could  Hagerman  obtain 
an  inkling  as  to  what  was  wanted  of  him;  but  at  the 
appointed  hour  he  repaired  to  the  White  House 
with  Mr.  Hughes,  who  alone  was  admitted  to  "the 
presence,"  while  the  Governor  was  requested  to 
wait  outside  with  Mr.  Loeb.  About  noon  Mr.  Gar- 
field  came  from  the  President's  office,  and  handed 
Hagerman  a  copy  of  the  "Cooley  Report,"  with 
the  message  that  the  President  desired  him  to  re 
turn  at  3  o'clock  to  "talk  over  the  Report,  and  one 
or  two  other  matters." 

Then,  for  the  first  time,  the  Governor  understood 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  85 

that  he  had  been  summoned  to  Washington  to  an 
swer  charges  in  the  Pennsylvania  Development  Co. 
land  matter.  To  his  surprised  protest  that  the  time 
was  rather  short  in  which  to  digest  a  voluminous 
report  and  prepare  an  answer,  Mr.  Garfield  offered 
no  comment. 

In  the  anteroom  Mr.  Hughes  was  waiting,  mani 
festly  much  disturbed  over  his  interview  with  the 
President;  who,  as  soon  as  he  learned  that  Hughes 
had  accompanied  Hagerman  to  Washington, 
showed  symptoms  of  deep  anger,  and  told  Mr. 
Hughes  "it  would  be  absolutely  useless  for  him  to 
say  anything  in  the  Governor's  defence;  that  what 
he  had  done  was  so  bad  it  would  be  ridiculous 
to  listen  to  any  friend  of  his."  He  further  in 
timated  that  Hagerman  had  surrendered  the 
deeds  to  the  Pennsylvania  Co.,  "in  order  to  get 
the  endorsement  of  the  Democratic  Territorial 
Convention,  and  to  harm  Delegate  Andrews  in  his 
campaign." 

Delegate  Andrews,  be  it  remembered,  was  a  most 
conspicuous  exponent  of  that  particular  brand  of 
politics  which  President  Roosevelt  had  expressly 
deputized  Governor  Hagerman  to  stamp  out  in 
New  Mexico !  Hagerman  says  of  him :  "His  repu 
tation  was  so  opposed  in  every  way  to  the  ideal  I 
had  conceived  of  Roosevelt,  that  I  confess  I  felt 
much  chagrin  when  I  discovered  that  the  President 
was  championing  Mr.  Andrews." 


86  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

After  this,  Governor  Hagerman  foresaw  that  his 
hearing  before  the  President  would  be  a  mere  for 
mality;  but,  at  the  appointed  hour — after  reading 
as  much  of  the  "Cooley  Report"  as  possible  in  the 
time  allotted — he  once  more  presented  himself  at 
the  White  House.  Mr.  Roosevelt  started  "the  hear 
ing"  by  telling  the  Governor  that  what  he  had  done 
was  so  bad  his  usefulness  in  New  Mexico  was 
ended;  that  if  he  did  not  know  him  to  be  honest, 
he  would  have  summarily  removed  him  on  the  Coo- 
ley  Report  alone;  that  if  he  had  been  "an  ordinary 
Governor,"  he  would  never  have  given  him  an 
opportunity  to  come  to  Washington  at  all ! 
What  followed  is  best  given  in  Hagerman's  own 
words : 

"The  President  went  on  to  say,  in  effect,  that  he 
desired  my  resignation  to  be  brought  about  with  as 
little  annoyance  and  pain  to  me  as  would  be  con 
sistent  with  his  opinion  about  'the  end  of  my  use 
fulness  in  New  Mexico.'  He  wished  the  contents 
of  the  Cooley  Report  to  remain  known  only  to 
himself,  Mr.  Garfield,  Mr.  Cooley,  and  myself. 
He  wished  me  to  go  back  to  New  Mexico  and  send 
in  my  resignation;  on  receiving  it,  he  would  write 
a  private  letter  for  my  eyes  alone,  in  which  he  would 
say  my  usefulness  had  ended,  and,  therefore,  he  ac 
cepted  my  resignation ;  and  then  he  would  write  an 
other  letter  for  the  office  files,  and  for  publication — • 
if  I  desired  to  publish  it — in  which  he  would  say  I 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  87 

was  strictly  upright  and  fearless,  and  would  men 
tion  what  I  had  done  for  the  Territory.  Turning 
to  the  Secretary,  he  asked  to  be  reminded  what  I 
had  done,  when  the  time  came  for  writing  this  sec 
ond  letter,  the  first  draft  of  which  I  might  return 
to  him  with  any  suggestions  and  additions  of  my 
own,  before  the  final  draft  was  signed  by  him — the 
draft  which  might  be  published! 

"This  proposal  in  regard  to  the  letters  seemed  very 
extraordinary  to  me ;  that  one  in  his  position  should 
want  to  employ  so  devious  and  unusual  a  method 
for  accomplishing  a  simple  result.  I  told  him  I  was 
ready  to  give  him  my  resignation  then  and  there, 
intimating  politely  that  I  thought  this  the  more 
simple  and  dignified  course.  He  did  not  desire  it, 
however,  and  I  decided  to  let  the  matter  take  its 
way.  When  given  an  opportunity  to  speak,  I  went 
over,  as  fully  as  I  could,  the  land  matter,  and  asked 
him  how  it  was,  that  this — which  at  the  worst  could 
only  be  called  an  error  of  judgment — could  offset 
all  the  other  things  I  had  done  for  the  public  weal 
in  New  Mexico? 

"He  replied  that  'it  was  infinitely  more  than  an 
error  of  judgment;  that  it  was  a  very  serious  of 
fence.'  While  I  could  hold  his  reluctant  attention, 
I  briefly  reviewed  the  achievements  of  my  adminis 
tration  in  line  with  what  I  thought  he  wanted  done 
— all  which  was  hastily  brushed  aside  as  he  indi 
cated  'the  hearing'  was  ended;  and  reiterated  that 


88  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

the  incident  had  been  very  painful  to  him, 
that  he  was  'deeply  grieved'  to  have  to  take  the 
step  he  was  taking.  During  the  interview  Sec 
retary  Garfield  only  spoke  when  addressed  by 
the  President,  and  then  in  briefest  terms  of  ac 
quiescence." 

Before  leaving  Washington,  however,  Governor 
Hagerman  demanded  of  the  Secretary  a  hearing 
on  the  Pennsylvania  Development  Co.  case  before 
the  law  officers  of  the  Department;  and  this  was 
granted,  though  Garfield  warned  him:  "When  a 
man  in  an  appointive  position  disagrees  with  the 
President,  there  is  nothing  for  him  to  do  but  ac 
cept  the  President's  point  of  view." 

The  Departmental  lawyers,  Mr.  Woodruff  and 
Mr.  Holcombe,  after  going  thoroughly  into  the 
case,  sustained  Hagerman's  action,  and  promised 
to  give  their  opinion  to  the  Secretary,  though  Mr. 
Holcombe  said  he  had  never  asked  for  it.  (Mr. 
Hagerman  has  heard  frorn  various  sources  that 
the  subject  of  his  eviction  from  the  governorship 
of  New  Mexico,  is  one  which  Mr.  Garfield  refuses 
to  discuss.) 

Governor  Hagerman  went  from  Washington  to 
St.  Louis;  and  there,  on  April  17,  he  saw  an  Asso 
ciated  Press  dispatch  from  the  White  House  that 
"Governor  Hagerman  had  told  the  President  he 
would  resign,  and  that  Captain  Curry  had  been  ap 
pointed." 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  89 

Thus  did  Mr.  Roosevelt  keep  his  part  of  his 
own  pre-arranged  program.  When  the  news 
reached  New  Mexico,  it  raised  a  storm  of  protests. 
A  mass  meeting  was  held  at  Albuquerque,  voicing 
the  popular  indignation;  two  leading  lawyers  of 
the  Territory,  one  a  Democrat  and  the  other  a  Re 
publican,  came  to  Washington  to  plead  the  Gov 
ernor's  cause  with  the  President.  The  only  answer 
anybody  got  from  him  was  that  uthe  incident  was 
closed." 

On  April  22,  Governor  Hagerman  sent  in  his 
formal  resignation,  and  on  May  3  he  received  the 
following : 

"THE  WHITE  HOUSE, 
"WASHINGTON,  April  29,  1907. 
"My  DEAR  GOVERNOR  HAGERMAN: — 

"In  response  to  your  letter  of  22d  inst,  I  ac 
cept  your  resignation,  to  take  effect  forthwith. 
While  matters  which  I  went  over  with  you  ver 
bally,  and  which  it  is  not  necessary  now  to  recapitu 
late,  make  it  necessary  to  request  your  resignation, 
I  wish  to  say  that  I  am  entirely  convinced  of  your 
personal  integrity,  and  your  zealous  desire  to  ac 
complish  good  results  for  the  Territory.  Much 
that  you  have  done  was  of  lasting  importance  to 
do;  and  while  I  did  not  think  it  for  the  interests 
of  the  public  to  continue  you  in  your  present  po 
sition,  I  am  glad  to  state  I  believe  there  are  many 
positions  in  the  public  service  which  you  could  fill 


90  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

with  honor  to  yourself  and  profit  to  the  Govern 
ment. 

"Wishing  you  all  success  in  your  future  life,  be 
lieve  me,  "Very  truly  yours, 

"(Signed)     THEODORE  ROOSEVELT." 

An  interesting  sidelight  on  this  letter  is  an  inci 
dent  which  occurred  several  years  later  in  a  club  in 
St.  Louis,  when  a  gentleman,  on  being  introduced 
to  Mr.  Hagerman,  inquired  if  he  were  the  ex-Gov 
ernor  of  New  Mexico.  Answered  in  the  affirma 
tive,  this  gentleman  related  he  had  always  wanted 
to  meet  Hagerman,  because  of  an  interview  he  had 
partly  overhead  between  President  Roosevelt  and 
Assistant  Attorney-General  Cooley  (author  of  the 
memorable  "report"),  upon  the  occasion  of  his 
calling  at  the  White  House  with  Mr.  Cooley  on 
or  near  April  13,  1907.  In  the  presence  of  this 
visitor,  Roosevelt  began  talking  to  Cooley  about 
Hagerman,  saying  the  matter  was  troubling  him  a 
great  deal,  and  that  they  "would  have  to  do  some 
thing  to  fix  it  up."  He  asked  Cooley  whether  he 
did  not  think  the  governorship  of  Porto  Rico 
might  be  offered  to  Hagerman — and  at  that  mo 
ment  they  withdrew  into  an  adjoining  room,  and 
the  visiting  gentleman  heard  no  more. 

It  will  be  observed  that  this  story  tallies  with 
the  closing  sentence  in  the  Roosevelt  letter  just 
quoted,  and  serves  to  accentuate  by  contrast  the 
general  tone  and  purport  of  a  second  letter  from 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  91 

the  same  source,  penned  two  days  later,  May  i, 
1907,  from  which  we  gather  that  the  immediate 
and  aggravating  cause  of  the  presidential  change- 
of-front  toward  the  Hagerman  character,  that 
which  converted  it  over  night  from  benevolent  in 
tention  to  malevolent  accusation,  was  the  receipt  of 
two  telegrams:  One  addressed  by  Governor  Ha 
german  to  Hon.  Gifford  Pinchot,  and  the  other  by 
his  father  to  the  Hon.  Elihu  Root, — indicating  the 
wide  range  of  the  Roosevelt  counselors  at  that 
time. 

The  Pinchot  telegram — assuming  the  Presi 
dent's  ignorance  of  the  fact — asked  to  have  it 
brought  to  his  personal  attention  that  hundreds  of 
persons  in  New  Mexico  sent  telegrams  protesting 
against  his  acceptance  of  Hagerman's  resignation. 
This,  of  course,  offered  needless  irritation  to  a 
presidential  conscience  already  perturbed,  and 
seeking  to  quiet  its  qualms  and  placate  its  victim 
with  an  adroit  tender  of  official  patronage;  and  it 
is  no  surprise  to  find  "offended  majesty"  writing  to 
the  hapless  ex-Governor:  "This  renders  it  neces 
sary  to  speak  very  plainly  to  you  I"  But,  in  order 
that  the  full  extent  of  the  Hagerman  offending  be 
known,  and  nothing  lost  of  its  exasperating  de 
tails,  we  quote  the  entire  telegram  sent  by  the  elder 
Hagerman  to  the  State  Department: 

"Please  ask  President  to  delay  action  on  resig 
nation  of  Governor  Hagerman  until  latter  has  time 


92  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

to  answer  charges  which  are  known  to  be  un 
founded,  and  made  by  party  free-booters  to  re 
store  themselves  to  power.  President  has  been 
shamefully  deceived,  and  put  in  false  light  by  men 
unworthy  of  his  confidence. 

"Last  week  Major  Llewellyn  stated  to  reputable 
men  in  Roswell  that  he  knew,  six  weeks  before, 
that  President  would  remove  Hagerman  and  ap 
point  Curry.  This  is  causing  impression  very  un 
favorable  to  the  President ;  he  owes  it  to  his  good 
name,  to  the  Republican  Party,  to  the  people  of 
New  Mexico,  to  truth  and  justice,  to  sift  this  thing 
to  the  bottom  before  final  action.  ...  I 
send  this  to  you,  because  of  the  impression  here 
that  communications  about  this  matter  never  reach 
the  President.  "Respectfully, 

"(Signed)     J.  J.  HAGERMAN." 

The  main  count  in  the  presidential  indictment  of 
Governor  Hagerman,  contained  in  the  "plain- 
spoken"  letter  of  May  i,  was  that  his  delivery  of 
the  deeds  to  the  Pennsylvania  Development  Co., 
for  land  acquired  before  he  became  Governor, 
consummated  "a  grossly  fraudulent  transaction, 
which  could  not  have  been  completed  without  this 
action,  made  with  full  knowledge  of  its  fraudulent 
character." 

This  main  charge  is  garnished  and  embellished 
with  such  delicate  suggestions  as  "the  inference 
which  ought  legitimately  to  be  drawn  from  the 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  93 

facts,"  that  the  Governor  had  been  actuated  in  his 
ugrossly  improper  and  presumably  unlawful  con 
duct"  by  his  desire  to  secure  Democratic  aid  in  the 
faction  fight;  and  "there  seemed" — to  the  sensitive 
Roosevelt  conscience — "no  moral  doubt  that,  in 
appointing  six  members  of  the  Legislative  Council 
to  lucrative  positions,"  Hagerman  was  guilty  of 
"bartering  offices  for  legislative  support!" 

The  grave  accusation :  "You  accepted  from  Mr. 
Hopewell  his  personal  check  for  $11,113" — to  a 
cursory  reading,  might  easily  convey  the  notion 
that  this  was  the  Governor's  personal  fee  for  aid 
ing  the  "grossly  fraudulent"  deal,  which  probably 
under  strong  outward  pressure  had  been  "subse 
quently  deposited  with  the  Land  Commissioner" — 
so  careful  is  Mr.  Roosevelt  to  withhold  the  fact 
that  the  Territory  had  derived  any  benefit  from 
Governor  Hagerman's  action. 

Then  follows  the  gratuitous  slap  at  the  elder 
Hagerman:  "Secretary  Root  has  handed  me  a 
long  telegram  from  your  father.  .  .  .  What 
he  means  by  saying  the  charges  are  unfounded,  I 
am  unable  to  imagine.  .  .  .  With  the  gossip 
that  your  father  repeats,  and  the  inferences  he 
draws  thereform,  I  have  no  concern.  .  .  . 
Charges  of  a  very  grave  character  were  made  to 
me  against  your  father  himself,  in  connection  with 
his  land  transactions  in  the  past.  Whether  they 
were  true  or  not,  I  cannot  say,  since  a  preliminary 


94  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

investigation   showed   action   on    them   would   be 
barred  by  the  statute  of  limitations." 

This  May  i  letter  is  marked  throughout  with  a 
lofty  tone  of  outraged  virtue  and  long-suffering 
forbearance,  so  befitting  a  righteous  judge  wishing 
to  temper  justice  with  clemency !  Particularly  im 
pressive  are  the  references  to  the  findings  of  the 
Departments  of  Justice  and  of  the  Interior,  as  lend 
ing  an  air  of  official  sanction  to  the  presidential 
spleen. 

In  very  favorable  contrast  is  the  quiet  self-re 
straint  and  dignified  candor  of  Governor  Hager- 
man's  reply:  "Due  regard  to  your  exalted  station 
forbids  that  I  should  answer  your  letter  in  terms 
justifiable  under  the  provocation  it  offers. 
I  hope,  however,  that  my  reply  will  not  be  less 
forceful  because  of  the  absence  of  harsh  lan 
guage."  He  then  reviews  the  facts,  in  re  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Development  Co.,  as  he  had  re 
viewed  them  before  at  the  White  House  and  to  the 
lawyers  of  the  Interior  Department:  At  the  time 
Governor  Hagerman,  acting  on  the  advice  of  his 
attorney-general,  delivered  the  deeds  to  Mr.  Hope- 
well,  agent  for  the  Pennsylvania  Co.,  the  land  de 
scribed  therein  had  been  for  years  in  the  possession 
of  the  company,  or  its  assigns.  Ten  thousand  dol 
lars  of  the  purchase  money  had  been  paid,  and  the 
remainder,  a  little  over  $10,000,  had  been  paid  by 
a  note;  and  the  deeds  had  been  executed,  but  re- 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  95 

tained  in  the  Land  Commissioner's  office  as  surety 
for  the  unpaid  balance.  Quantities  of  timber  had 
been  cut  by  the  company,  for  which  the  sum  pre 
viously  paid  was  inadequate  compensation;  a  suit 
by  the  Territory  to  recover  the  value  of  the  timber 
would  have  been  of  doubtful  efficacy;  and  the 
deeds,  whether  in  the  Territorial  Land  Office  or 
in  the  possession  of  the  company,  would  have  been 
equally  available  as  a  defence  to  any  such  suit.  If 
the  title  could  pass  at  all  in  this  case,  it  had 
as  a  matter  of  equity  already  passed.  If  the 
whole  business  was,  as  the  President  declared, 
unlawful  from  its  inception,  the  mere  delivery  of 
the  deeds  could  have  no  validating  effect.  Every 
thing  possible  to  complete  the  alleged  unlawful 
contract  had  been  done  before  Hagerman  came 
into  office,  and  his  surrender  of  the  deeds  neither 
helped  the  company  nor  impaired  the  rights  of  the 
Territory,  and  was  of  no  importance  except  as  it 
enabled  him  to  get  for  the  Territory  something 
over  $11,000,  which  might  serve  as  indemnity  for 
the  timber — if  the  attempted  sale  were  declared 
void. 

Mr.  Hagerman  then  reminds  his  august  accuser 
that  all  this  had  been  embodied  in  a  report  sub 
mitted  by  him  in  September,  1906;  that  he  had 
been  advised  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  that 
the  report  was  satisfactory  to  him,  and  he  believed 
equally  so  to  the  President;  and  concludes  his  de- 


96  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

fence  with  the  manly  words:  "And  now,  Mr. 
President,  permit  me  to  say  that,  but  for  your  gra 
tuitous  and  irrelevant  attack  upon  my  father,  I 
might  have  refrained  from  making  any  reply  to 
your  letter;  notwithstanding  it  is  easy  to  refute 
every  suggestion  of  improper  conduct  you  make 
against  me.  My  father  is  advanced  in  years,  and 
in  feeble  health;  he  has  spent  much  of  his  life  and 
fortune  in  the  development  of  the  West,  and  has 
never,  to  my  knowledge,  been  accused  of  fraudu 
lent  or  improper  conduct.  I,  therefore,  ask  you, 
as  a  square  man,  to  make  your  allegations  specific, 
so  that  he  can  meet  them ;  and  I  will  undertake  for 
him  that  he  will  not  plead  any  'statute  of  limita 
tions.'  I  submit  that  every  principle  of  fairness 
requires  that  you  withdraw  what  you  said  about 
my  father,  or  that  you  say  more. 

"(Signed)     H.  J.  HAGERMAN." 

This  elicited  a  brief,  sharp  reply,  through  Mr. 
Loeb,  of  date  May  23,  1907: 

"SiR:— 

"I  am  directed  by  the  President  to  state  that 
what  he  said  about  your  father  was,  in  view  of 
your  father's  telegram,  the  least  that  could  be  said. 
The  President  says,  moreover,  that  your  explana 
tions  explain  nothing,  and  do  not  aid  your  defence, 
as  they  leave  the  statement  of  the  Assistant  Attor 
ney-General  unaffected." 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  97 

The  elder  Hagerman  wrote  twice  to  President 
Roosevelt,  earnestly  and  respectfully  asking  him  to 
state  specifically  the  charges  against  him,  and  who 
had  made  them.  There  was  never  the  slightest 
acknowledgment  of  these  letters. 

Corroborative  of  the  telegram  which  was  made 
both  the  occasion  and  the  defence  of  Roosevelt's 
unwarranted  attack,  is  the  following  affidavit,  of 
which  Governor  Hagerman  holds  the  original : 

"TERRITORY  OF  NEW  MEXICO, 
"County  of  Chaves,  ss. 

"J.  F.  Hinkle,  being  duly  sworn  on  oath,  states 
that  on  April  20,  1907,  near  the  Grand  Central 
Hotel  in  Roswell,  affiant  met  Major  W.  H.  H. 
Llewellyn,  and  remarked:  'Well,  Major,  you  fel 
lows  have  succeeded  in  getting  Hagerman  out.'  To 
which  Llewellyn  replied :  'I  did  not  have  anything 
to  do  with  it,  but  I  knew  Curry  would  be  appointed 
six  weeks  ago.  I  was  bound  in  confidence  not  to 
mention  it  until  after  the  appointment  was  made.' 

"(Signed)     J.  F.  HINKLE. 
"Subscribed  and  sworn  to  before  me  this  May 
30,  1907. 

"(Signed)     MYRTIE  ALDRIGE, 

"Notary  Public." 

The  Llewellyn  statement  received  further  cor- 
roboration  some  months  later  from  Governor 
Curry,  who  stated  at  a  banquet  given  him  in  Ros- 


98  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

well,  on  August  6,  that  the  governorship  of  New 
Mexico  had  been  offered  him  in  February  (1907) 
before  he  left  the  Philippines.  This  was  before 
the  adjournment  of  the  Territorial  Legislature; 
before  the  introduction  of  the  uspite  resolution"; 
before  the  date  of  Garfield's  telegram  to  Barnes. 
And  this  was  "the  gossip"  with  which  President 
Roosevelt  stated  he  "had  no  concern!" 

If  further  confirmation  were  needed  of  the  pre 
arranged  verdict  in  the  Hagerman  case — as  well 
as  the  whole  opera  bouffe  character  of  Roosevelt's 
reform  program  in  New  Mexico — it  was  furnished 
by  events  following  Governor  Hagerman's  re 
moval.  Having  thundered  in  the  index  of  the 
Territorial  land  transactions,  it  was,  of  course,  in 
cumbent  to  keep  up  the  mimic  show  a  little  longer 
— until  public  attention  could  be  averted. 

In  the  Summer  of  1907  Messrs.  McHarg  and 
Gordon  were  sent  out  to  make  ua  thorough  inves 
tigation"  of  public  lands  and  other  matters  in 
New  Mexico;  but  when,  instead  of  establishing 
Hagerman's  guilt  and  sustaining  the  President's 
verdict,  the  investigation  brought  to  light  the 
shady  records  of  the  men  upon  whose  testimony 
the  verdict  had  been  rendered,  and  likewise  impli 
cated  some  of  the  President's  personal  friends,  the 
investigators  were  called  off,  and  soon  returned  to 
Washington.  Their  activities,  with  the  net  results, 
may  be  briefly  summarized:  Suit  was  brought 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  99 

against  the  Pennsylvania  Development  Co.,  the 
American  Lumber  Co.,  and  others,  for  the  recov 
ery  of  lands  and  timber  sold  by  the  Territory  prior 
to  Governor  Hagerman's  induction  to  office.  These 
sales  had  been  made  in  violation  of  a  restrictive 
provision  in  the  Act  of  Congress,  June  21,  1898, 
regulating  the  sale  of  public  lands;  said  provision 
limiting  the  quantity  which  might  be  sold  to  each 
person,  or  corporation,  to  160  acres;  but,  being 
regarded  as  unwise,  had  been  disregarded  by  New 
Mexican  authorities  almost  from  its  inception. 
Quantities  of  land  largely  in  excess  of  160  acres 
had  passed  to  the  possession  of  individuals  and 
corporations,  with  the  approval  of  Governor, 
Land  Commissioner,  and  Legislative  Assembly.  In 
many  instances  large  sums  had  been  spent  for  im 
provements,  flourishing  business  houses  erected  on 
these  lands;  and,  because  of  the  complications  aris 
ing  therefrom,  the  lawyers  of  the  Interior  Depart 
ment  were  very  chary  of  advice  or  opinions  for  the 
guidance  of  a  perplexed  Executive  seeking  to 
square  the  rights  of  the  Territory,  and  the  rights  of 
purchasers,  with  the  letter  of  the  law.  Governor 
Hagerman,  therefore,  receiving  no  answer  to  his 
numerous  appeals  to  the  Department,  was  forced 
to  exercise  his  own  discretion,  assisted  by  the  advice 
of  his  attorney-general. 

After  several  months  of  probing  and  agitating 
by  the    Government  agents,  no  indictments  were 


too  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

found  against  any  one  for  connection  with  the  land 
sales;  but  nineteen  persons  were  indicted  for  al 
leged  fraudulent  coal  land  entries.  Shortly  there 
after  a  Washington  dispatch  announced  "all  but 
three  or  four  of  the  nineteen  indictments  will  be 
dismissed."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  all  the  coal  land 
cases  were  in  a  few  months  dismissed,  and  Assist 
ant  Attorney-General  Cooley  issued  the  following 
statement:  "I  cannot  talk  for  publication  about 
the  Department's  plans  in  detail;  but  I  can  say  that 
Mr.  Hagerman  will  not  be  indicted,  and  that 
whatever  may  be  the  facts  about  his  connection 
with  land  matters  in  the  Territory,  he  has  not  been 
guilty  of  any  moral  wrong." 

Mr.  Cooley  was  subsequently  appointed  District 
Judge  in  New  Mexico,  and  sought  through  Gov 
ernor  Curry  an  interview  with  ex-Governor  Hager 
man,  maintaining  to  him  that,  upon  the  evidence 
presented  to  him,  he  could  not  make  any  other 
"report"  than  the  one  he  rendered;  but  that  since 
coming  to  New  Mexico  and  realizing  conditions 
there,  he  wanted  Hagerman's  friendship,  etc.,  etc. 
In  view  of  this  and  the  further  fact  that  it  no 
where  appears  from  the  records  that  the 
"Cooley  Report"  was  ever  submitted  to  the 
Attorney-General  for  approval,  the  inference  seems 
not  wholly  strained,  that  this  weighty  document 
— declared  to  be  the  sole  basis  of  Roosevelt's 
action — may  have  been  framed  at  the  dictation, 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  101 

and  under  the  express  direction  of  the  President' 
himself. 

The  documentary  proofs  of  this  story — includ 
ing  the  official  correspondence  between  Roosevelt, 
Hagerman,  and  Garfield — are  all  contained  in  a 
pamphlet  issued  by  the  ex-governor  for  private 
circulation  in  1908,  copies  of  which  ex-President 
Eliot  of  Harvard  is  said  to  have  advised  placing 
in  all  the  public  libraries  of  the  country.  In  con 
cluding  his  statement,  Governor  Hagerman  says: 
"The  President  may  have  been  influenced  in  this 
matter  by  higher  motives  of  public  policy  than  ap 
pears  on  the  face  of  things;  but  he  has  never  re 
vealed  to  any  one,  to  my  knowledge,  what  those 
motives  were.  Irrespective  of  the  justice  or  in 
justice  of  his  acts  concerning  me  personally,  it  is 
not  unfair  to  summarize  the  effects  of  them  upon 
New  Mexico  as  follows: 

I.  A  distinct  lowering  of  the  standards  of  pub 
lic  morality,  and  the  fostering  of  moral  cowardice 
in  regard  to  public  affairs., 

II.  The   rehabilitation   of   a   corrupt   and   dis 
credited  political  machine,  hated  or  feared  by  all 
decent  people  in  the  Territory :  by  virtue  of  whicn 
"Bull"  Andrews  returned  to  Congress,  and  Mr. 
Bursum  reimbursed  himself  from  the  Territorial 
Treasury  for  the  $5,000  shortage  he  had  been 
forced  to  pay  into  it. 

III.  The  intimidation  and  subserviency  of  pub- 


102  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

lie  officials  throughout  the  Territory,  tending  to 
ward  the  growth  of  a  fawning  bureaucracy. 

IV.  The  widespread  belief  that  special  priv 
ileges  and  immunities  are  granted  by  the  Adminis 
tration  for  political  reasons  to  unworthy  men,  and 
that  defamation  and  persecution  are  sure  to  follow 
him  who  incurs  its  displeasure. 

And  it  was  thus  that  "Colonel"  Roosevelt,  when 
President,  purified  politics  in  New  Mexico,  and 
administered  his  favorite  nostrum  of  uthe  square 
deal"  to  the  Hagermans — father  and  son. 


CHAPTER  V 

SOME  EPISODES  AND  SIDELIGHTS  OF  THE  AFRICAN 
EXPEDITION 

When  Roosevelt  set  sail  for  the  African  hunting- 
grounds,  in  the  Spring  of  1909,  not  nearly  so  many 
people  on  this  side  the  Atlantic  were  wishing  "the 
lions  might  do  their  duty,"  as  were  pictured  in  his 
egotistic  fancy. 

Not  even  the  plethoric  gentlemen  of  Wall  Street 
— who,  he  had  been  at  such  pains  to  convince  the 
multitude,  were  especially  hostile — gave  him  much 
anxious  thought,  one  way  or  the  other.  They,  with 
the  great  majority  of  us — a  few  deluded  worshipers 
excepted — were  perfectly  content  to  have  him  "play 
around"  with  the  lions,  and  other  jungle  beasts; 
amuse  himself — and  others — in  European  courts, 
before  high-brow  societies  literary,  scientific,  or 
otherwise,  and  give  this  country  a  brief  respite. 

Owing  to  the  ceaseless  efforts  of  his  untiring 
press-bureau,  however,  the  country  was  not  per 
mitted  to  enjoy  the  complete  rest  from  T.  R.,  to 
which  it  was  justly  entitled,  and  which  the  lifting 
of  his  strenuous  presence  should  have  secured.  His 
name  never  disappeared  from  the  public  prints; 
every  step  of  his  journey,  and  every  incident  of  his 
sojourn  abroad,  was  duly  chronicled  in  scare-heads, 

103 


104  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

from  the  attempted  assassination  on  shipboard  on 
the  outward  voyage — observed  only  by  a  few  hand- 
picked  witnesses,  to  the  graceful  flip-flop  on  the 
steps  of  the  Vatican  on  the  homeward  route — 
staged  for  world  observation  by  the  forehanded  ex 
pedient  of  giving  the  diplomatic  correspondence  to 
the  Associated  Press  without  letting  the  Papal  secre 
tary  know  anything  about  it ! 

As  soon  as  the  Roosevelt  ship,  with  its  cargo  of 
newspaper  men,  artists,  and  photographers,  as  well 
as  "faunal  naturalists"  and  gun-experts,  touched 
shore  at  various  Mediterranean  ports,  American 
dispatches  kept  us  informed  of  the  eager  commo 
tion  among  all  the  royal  personages — or  their  repre 
sentatives — within  a  radius  of  many  miles,  to  sig 
nalize  with  befitting  attentions  their  grateful  ap 
preciation  of  T.  R.'s  approach.  Only  certain  cor- 
repondents  of  French  newspapers  evinced  a  carping 
disposition.  One  of  these  is  accredited  with  the  ill- 
natured  remark:  "When  the  Caesar  of  modern  de 
mocracy  goes  hunting,  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  and 
America  climb  to  their  windows  and  watch  the  cara 
van  of  publicity  pass."  Another — with  calmer  in 
spection — observed  that  Roosevelt  seemed  absorbed 
in  self;  that  he  displayed  no  interest  in,  and  no 
appreciation  of,  the  beauties  and  art  treasures  at 
Naples — only  impatience  to  be  off  to  the  African 
wilds  and  the  slaughter  of  the  innocents;  and  the 
writer  contrasts  this  behavior  with  the  unobler 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  105 

breeding  of  the  Emperor  William,  who  asked  to  be 
left  alone  before  a  marble  bust  which  affirmed  the 
eternity  of  beauty."  Another  French  reporter  re 
lates  that  Roosevelt's  talk  was  all  of  himself  and  his 
achievements;  that  he  boasted:  "I  have  fought  the 

011  kings  and  the  Steel  emperors  of  my  own  land. 
They  tried  to  break  my  back,  but  my  back  is  still 
intact" ! 

This  Rooseveltian  boast  on  a  foreign  shore  in 
1909  is  highly  interesting  in  the  light  of  the  1911- 

1 2  revelations  in  this  country — brought  out  by  Con 
gressional  investigation  and  established  by  sworn 
testimony — that  Roosevelt,  when  President,  refused 
to  prosecute  the  Sugar  Trust  upon  evidence  which 
his  Assistant  Attorney-General  told  the  Congres 
sional  Committee  was  sufficient  to  secure  a  convic 
tion  ;  and  upon  which  the  receiver  of  an  independent 
sugar    company — wrecked     by    the     Trust — had 
caused  the  latter  in  a  private  suit  to  disgorge  $2,- 
000,000;  that  he  was  accessory  before  the  fact  to 
the  absorption  of  the  Tennessee  Coal  and  Iron 
Company  by  the  Steel  Trust  in  1907;  and  that  he 
halted  the  Government's  suit  against  the  Harvester 
Trust,  and  locked  up  the  evidence  at  the  request 
of  his  dear  friend,  George  W.  Perkins,  who,  by 
some  curious  and  wholly  unrelated  fortuity,  is  now 
serving  in  the  disinterested  and  patriotic  role  of 
campaign   manager   for   the   new   "Bull   Moose" 
Party  I 


io6  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

All  this,  of  course,  the  foreign  publicity  hosts 
did  not  know  in  1909 — their  ignorance  in  this  re 
spect  being  hardly  greater  than  the  average  Ameri 
can's — and  were  accordingly  mightily  impressed 
by  the  boastful  utterances  of  the  great  American 
Trust  Buster.  The  impertinent  comment  of  the 
French  correspondents  received  fitting  rebuke  by 
the  Colonel's  enrolling  one  of  them,  M.  Jean  de 
Bonnefon,  of  Le  Journal  de  Paris,  in  the  Ananias 
Club — he  being  the  first  recorded  foreigner  ad 
mitted  to  membership — and  with  this  trifling  inci 
dent  of  the  day's  travel,  the  unflattering  French 
criticism  passed. 

Noisy  promulgation  had  been  made  of  the  fact 
that  the  Roosevelt  African  expedition  was  under 
taken  "in  the  interests  of  science,  and  not  for  butch 
ery"  ;  that  it  would  be  the  high  purpose  of  its  leader 
and  animating  spirit  to  secure  specimens  of  the 
great  mammals  which  the  Smithsonian  Institute  had 
so  long  coveted;  and  that  no  more  game  would 
be  wantonly  sacrificed  than  just  enough  to  supply 
the  hunters  with  food.  Yet  the  Roosevelt  killings 
reported  from  time  to  time  embraced  many  insig 
nificant  and  harmless  creatures,  gazelles  and 
wilde-beests,  which  were  not  important  either  for 
the  museum  or  the  camp;  not  a  few  protests  went 
up  from  the  cruelty-prevention  societies,  both  in 
this  country  and  in  England;  and  when  at  last  the 
great  "faunal  naturalist"  folded  his  tent  like  the 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  107 

Arab,  and  turned  his  back  on  the  African  plains, 
the  scene  of  his  scientific  and  philanthropic  labors 
was  featured  by  the  caricaturists  like  "the  valley 
of  dead  bones"  in  Ezekiel's  vision. 

Most  likely  the  truth  will  never  be  known  as  to 
how  many  wild  creatures  perished  in  that  expedi 
tion,  nor  whose  hand  brought  them  down — nor 
does  it  greatly  matter.  If  the  published  accounts 
of  the  methods  of  pursuing  the  game  were  at  all 
accurate,  the  conclusion  is  inevitable  that  the  only 
danger  in  it  for  anybody  was  incurred  by  the  Afri 
can  natives,  who  were  employed  to  go  into  the 
jungles  and  thickets,  and  roust  out  the  ferocious 
beasts,  in  order  that  these  highly  civilized  and 
highly  protected  sportsmen  might  take  a  safe  and 
sane  shot  at  them  in  the  open.  I  recall  a  heroic 
episode  in  one  of  the  press  dispatches  about  T.  R. 
saving  the  lives  of  two  negro  natives  engaged  in 
this  perilous  business  of  disturbing  the  animals  in 
their  native  lairs;  and  it  let  in  a  flood  of  light 
(needless  to  say,  this  was  not  the  purpose  of  the 
dispatch)  on  the  question  as  to  whose  lives  were  be 
ing  jeopardized  in  this  scientific  sport — aside  from 
the  wild  beasts,  of  course.  Again,  it  is  somewhat 
difficult  of  belief  that  a  man  so  near-sighted  as  the 
Colonel,  of  whom  it  is  said  he  has  to  put  on  his 
glasses  to  eat  his  soup,  could  attain  such  skill  and 
win  such  prestige  as  a  marksman;  but  this  is  no 
greater  strain  upon  our  credulity  than  many  other 


io8  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

exploits  claimed  for  him  by  the  adulators — so  we 
will  let  that  pass.  One  thing  only  seems  quite 
clear,  in  the  light  of  past  and  present  events,  and 
that  is:  the  African  hunting  trip  was  undertaken 
not  so  much  for  science,  nor  for  sport,  as  for  politi 
cal  effect. 

The  Colonel  returned  to  civilization,  and  the 
peaceful  arts  of  political  advertising,  on  March  14, 
1910,  when  he  reached  Khartoum,  Egypt,  and 
some  days  later  delivered  the  address  before  the 
Cairo  University  on  the  Egyptian  political  situa 
tion,  which — outraging  official  propriety  and  the 
amenities  of  social  life — caused  a  near-riot. 

The  bitter  friction  between  the  Government 
and  the  Nationalist  Party — wishing  to  cast  off  the 
British  yoke — which  had  culminated  in  the  assassi 
nation  of  Boutras  Pasha  Ghaly,  the  Egyptian 
Prime  Minister,  had  been  somewhat  allayed  by  the 
more  conciliatory  attitude  adopted  by  the  Govern 
ment;  and  both  parties  were  engaged  in  a  com 
mendable  effort  to  make  the  best  of  an  irritating 
situation.  Into  this  tense  atmosphere  came  Col 
onel  Roosevelt,  splashed  with  jungle  gore  and  his 
customary  cock-suredness.  Undeterred  either  by 
his  ignorance  of  local  complications,  or  by  the  ordi 
nary  delicacy  of  an  invited  guest  seated  between 
two  warring  entertainers,  he  proceeded  in  vigorous 
fashion  to  read  the  Nationalists  a  severe  lecture 
upon  the  sin  of  insubordination;  scored  the  "in- 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  109 

decent"  sympathizers  with  the  assassin,  and  ex 
horted  them  to  "think  what  a  disaster  it  would  be 
if  British  rule  were  removed  from  the  Soudan"  1 

Small  wonder  that  the  authorities  with  difficulty 
prevented  a  riot,  and  that  they  watched  the  depart 
ure  of  this  novel  "scientific  expedition"  with  much 
greater  joy  than  they  had  welcomed  its  arrival. 

According  to  press  dispatches,  Mr.  Roosevelt, 
while  at  Gondokoro  in  February,  had  written  to 
the  American  ambassador  at  Rome  that  he  would 
like  an  audience  with  King  Victor  Emmanuel,  and 
with  the  Pope.  This  was  after  the  Fairbanks  inci 
dent  had  laid  the  ecclesiastical  world  of  both  con 
tinents  by  the  ears.  Mr.  Fairbanks,  it  will  be  re 
called,  had  been  denied  an  audience  with  Pope 
Pius  X.  early  in  February,  when  it  became  known 
that  he  intended  to  deliver  an  address  before  the 
Methodist  Society  in  Rome,  which,  the  Catholics 
charged,  had  gone  out  of  its  way  to  defame  and 
insult  "the  holy  father."  Be  that  as  it  may,  the 
Catholic  feeling  against  the  Methodists  in  Rome 
was  so  bitter  that  His  Holiness  declined  to  receive 
any  one  affiliating  with  them  in  any  way. 

Since  Mr.  Fairbanks  had  already  given  his 
promise  to  address  the  Methodists  before  receiv 
ing  the  Pope's  ultimatum,  and  was,  moreover,  a 
member  of  the  Methodist  household-of-faith,  he 
had  no  option — as  a  loyal  Methodist,  and  honor 
able  man — but  to  adhere  to  his  Methodist  pro- 


no  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

gram,  and  withdraw  his  request  for  a  Papal  au 
dience.  And  thus  the  matter  ended,  after  some 
sectarian  pow-wow  on  both  sides  the  Atlantic — 
which  settled  nothing,  except  that  no  future  visitor 
to  Rome  might  expect  to  call  on  the  Pope  and  the 
Methodist  Colony  simultaneously.  That  was  the 
one  clearly  established  fact  emerging  from  the  con 
troversy.  Mr.  Roosevelt  heard  it,  and  understood 
it,  as  well  as  any  one  else.  When,  therefore,  with 
this  Fairbanks  pointer  fresh  in  everybody's  mind, 
the  Colonel  craved  an  audience  with  His  Holiness, 
the  Catholic  authorities  were  perfectly  justified  in 
believing  that  he  accepted  the  condition  imposed 
upon  his  former  presidential  mate,  and  upon  all 
Protestant  rulers  of  Europe — and  elsewhere. 

This  view  was  confirmed  by  an  announcement 
appearing  in  the  press  in  the  interim,  that  "Mr. 
Roosevelt  would  call  on  the  holy  father  when  he 
came  to  Rome,  and  that  he  would  make  no  ad 
dresses  of  any  kind  while  there."  This  was  con 
strued  by  both  Protestants  and  Catholics  to  mean 
that  he  was  steering  his  craft  in  Roman  waters  with 
special  reference  to  avoiding  the  Fairbanks  break 
ers. 

Whether  this  press  report  was  authorized  by 
Mr.  Roosevelt  or  not  is  of  little  consequence.  The 
point  is,  he  knew  the  terms  upon  which  he  might 
see  the  Pope,  from  the  first  week  in  February  up 
to  the  last  week  in  March,  when  he  decided  it 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  in 

would  be  a  clever  political  stroke  to  issue  a  spec 
tacular  rejection  of  them.  Cardinal  Merry  del 
Val,  the  Papal  secretary,  through  whom  the  nego 
tiation  had  been  conducted,  was  naturally  aston 
ished  at  the  sudden  turn  of  affairs;  and  justly 
complained  that  Mr.  Roosevelt's  final  decision  had 
been  given  to  the  press  before  it  was  communicated 
to  the  Vatican — these  exchanges  concerning  audi 
ences  being  regarded  by  the  Vatican  authorities  as 
confidential,  and  never  to  be  made  public. 

At  Cairo,  on  March  23d,  Mr.  Roosevelt  re 
ceived  the  telegram  which  was  made  the  pretext 
for  the  coup-de-main  which  was  to  startle  two  con 
tinents.  This  telegram  from  the  Papal  secretary 
ran  as  follows:  "The  holy  father  will  be  de 
lighted  to  grant  an  audience  to  Mr.  Roosevelt 
on  April  5th,  and  hopes  that  nothing  will  arise 
to  prevent  it,  such  as  the  much-regretted  incident 
which  made  the  reception  of  Mr.  Fairbanks  im 
possible." 

To  this  Roosevelt  replied — in  courteous  and 
diplomatic  phrasing,  it  is  true — that  he  "must  de 
cline  to  make  any  stipulations  or  submit  to  any 
conditions  which  would  in  any  way  limit  his  free 
dom  of  conduct";  and,  after  one  or  two  more 
polite  exchanges,  the  proposed  Roosevelt  audience 
with  the  Pope  was  called  off;  though  the  matter 
was  kept  secret  until  Roosevelt  entered  Rome  on 
April  3d,  and  then — as  before  related — it  was  an- 


ii2  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

nounced  in  the  press  before  it  was  given  to  the 
Papal  secretary. 

There  seems  no  good  reason  for  doubting  the 
sincerity  of  the  latter's  statement,  that  the  Vatican 
had  no  intention  of  imposing  hard  or  impossible 
conditions,  or  of  restricting  Mr.  Roosevelt's  per 
sonal  freedom;  that  the  same  procedure  had  been 
adopted  in  his  case  as  was  customary  in  arranging 
audiences  with  the  Pope;  and  that  the  reference  to 
the  Fairbanks  incident  in  the  Papal  telegram  was 
"merely  a  friendly  intimation."  The  Cardinal 
might  very  properly  have  added  that,  but  for  the 
diplomatic  code  which  renders  the  recital  of  many 
superfluous  things  imperative,  the  "friendly  intima 
tion"  was  also  considered  a  superfluous  intimation, 
since  it  was  taken  for  granted  that  Roosevelt  knew 
all  about  the  Fairbanks  trouble,  and  what  was  ex 
pected  of  him,  if  he  would  avoid  a  similar  dilemma. 

Merry  del  Val  meets  the  charge  of  religious  in 
tolerance,  in  the  further  statement:  "It  was  not  in 
any  sense  a  question  of  religion;  Mr.  Roosevelt 
might  have  gone  to  his  own,  or  to  a  Presbyterian, 
or  Episcopalian,  or  any  other  Protestant  church  in 
Rome — except  the  Methodist — and  delivered  an 
address  there;  and  he  would  have  been  received 
by  the  Pope,  even  on  the  same  day.  But  he  could 
not  be  received  when  it  was  suspected  that,  after 
the  audience,  he  intended  to  visit  the  Methodist 
church  in  Rome,  which  is  carrying  on  a  most  of- 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  113 

fensive  campaign  of  calumny  and  detraction 
against  the  pontiff." 

Now,  one  does  not  need  to  agree  with  this 
Vatican  view  of  the  Methodists,  nor  to  espouse 
either  side  of  the  Methodist-Romanist  imbroglio, 
in  order  to  determine  the  crux  of  this  Roosevelt- 
Vatican  episode;  and  to  see  quite  clearly,  in  the 
cold  light  of  the  facts,  that  the  Vatican's  position 
was  consistent  and  right  in  the  matter,  and  that 
Roosevelt's  difficulty  was  entirely  of  his  own  manu 
facture. 

To  a  disinterested  on-looker,  untinged  with  sec 
tarian  bias  of  any  hue,  this  was  the  situation:  Here 
were  two  warring  sects.  Whatever  the  respective 
merits  or  demerits  of  the  parties  to  the  conflict,  it 
was  an  undisputed  fact  that  the  Catholics  and 
Methodists  in  the  "eternal  city,"  so  far  from  dwell 
ing  together  in  the  peace  and  unity  enjoined  upon 
Christians,  were  sadly  at  logger-heads;  they  ad 
mitted  it  themselves,  and  there  was  no  immediate 
prospect  of  a  truce  of  hostilities  even.  Along 
comes  a  distinguished  individual,  who  is  neither 
Methodist  nor  Catholic,  has  no  place  in  the  con 
troversy  whatever;  has  not  even  been  asked  to 
enact  his  favorite  role  of  "interposing  his  friendly 
offices" — and  asks  to  be  presented  to  the  head  of 
the  Catholic  Church,  Pope  Pius  X,  who  is  one  of 
the  commanding  figures  in  Europe. 

Please  bear  this  in  mind :  Roosevelt  had  asked  to 


ii4  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

see  the  Pope ;  the  Pope  had  not  asked  to  see  Roose 
velt.  One  would  think,  under  the  circumstances, 
that  ordinary  good-breeding,  and  a  knowledge  of 
the  laws  of  courtesy,  would  have  sufficiently  indi 
cated  the  line  of  conduct  to  be  pursued.  Merry 
del  Val's  contention,  that  it  was  not  a  question  of 
religion,  but  of  etiquette,  was  perfectly  sound;  it 
was  a  question  of  observing  or  offending  the  pro 
prieties  of  the  Papal  court,  at  whose  gate  Roosevelt 
was  knocking  for  admission. 

Personally,  I  place  little  stress  upon  the  outward 
pomp  and  circumstance  of  either  pontiffs  or  kings; 
but,  if  I  esteemed  any  private  individual  sufficiently 
to  beg  the  privilege  of  calling  upon  him,  or  upon 
her,  I  should  hold  myself  bound  by  every  known 
canon  of  good  taste  and  good  manners  to  avoid 
offending  the  sensibilities  of  mine  host,  or  hostess, 
in  any  way  whatsoever;  such,  for  instance,  as  giv 
ing  prominence  to  the  fact  that  I  intended  shortly 
to  call  on  his  or  her  bitterest  foe — living  just  across 
the  street,  we  will  say;  and  as  for  noisy  insistence 
upon  my  personal  right  to  consort  with  their  foes 
— well,  that  would  be  too  vulgar  for  words ! 

Many  persons  think  that  what  would  be  mani 
festly  improper  in  the  case  of  an  individual  is  still 
more  improper  in  the  case  of  distinguished  officials; 
and  certainly  we  know  that  all  Catholics  hold  that 
a  discourtesy  to  the  Pope  greatly  intensifies  the 
offence  per  se.  Now,  while  Mr.  Roosevelt  is  not 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  115 

afflicted  with  any  great  amount  of  innate  refine 
ment,  and  seldom  allows  any  nice  sense  of  pro 
priety,  or  regard  for  other  people's  feelings,  to 
interfere  with  his  purposes  or  desires,  it  cannot  be 
argued  that  he  is  ignorant  of  polite  usages  both  in 
private  and  official  life.  When  he  sins  against 
these,  he  sins  knowingly.  This  Vatican  incident 
was  not  the  act  of  a  bull-in-a-china-shop. 

Neither  can  we  believe  that  Mr.  Roosevelt 
wished  to  offend  the  Catholics.  This  idea  is  pre 
cluded  both  by  the  unctuous  wording  of  his  cable 
grams  to  "the  holy  father,"  and  by  the  letter  which 
he  quickly  dispatched  to  Dr.  Abbott  in  his  beloved 
Outlook,  but  which  was  really  intended  for  Ameri 
can  voters.  In  it  he  makes  a  pious — almost  pa 
thetic — appeal  to  his  "fellow- Americans,  Catholic 
and  Protestant" — after  he  had  wantonly  set  them 
at  each  other's  throats — not  to  allow  this  "merely 
personal  incident"  between  himself  and  the  Pope 
to  be  made  the  occasion  for  bitter  sectarian  wrang 
ling;  which  recalls  the  story  of  the  man  who  turned 
the  bear  loose  in  the  streets,  and  then  called  on  his 
neighbors  to  "come,  help  catch  it,  quick!"  One 
sentence  from  this  patriotic  Outlook  letter  is  so 
touching  and  so  inspiring  that  one  feels  it  should 
be  inscribed  (in  illuminated  text)  on  the  "Bull 
Moose"  banners,  in  these  piping  campaign  days  of 
1912  :  "It  would  cause  me  a  real  pang  to  have  any 
thing  said  or  done  that  would  hurt  or  give  pain  to 


ii 6  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

my  friends,  whatever  their  religious  belief,  but  any 
merely  personal  considerations  are  of  no  conse 
quence  in  this  matter."  This  may  at  least  be  war 
ranted — should  he  encounter  it — to  deepen  the 
smile  on  the  blond  features  of  the  Hon.  William 
Howard  Taft. 

If  further  proof  were  needed  of  Mr.  Roose 
velt's  regard  for  American  Catholics,  it  may  be 
found  in  a  statement  made  by  the  Hon.  Paul  Mor 
ton  (himself  a  Catholic)  at  a  White  House  dinner 
given  to  capital  and  labor  leaders  November  12, 
1904:  "It  is  a  notable  fact,  without  an  important 
exception,  that  the  Catholic  press  of  the  United 
States  supported  President  Roosevelt  in  the  election 
just  passed" ;  and  in  another  statement  from  Father 
Hannan,  pastor  of  St.  Martin's  Church  at  Wash 
ington,  D.  C.,  spoken  in  his  pulpit  just  after  the 
Rome  incident  in  April,  1910,  that  "Roosevelt  was 
the  first  Republican  President  who  polled  the  great 
Catholic  vote  in  America." 

Of  course,  Mr.  Roosevelt  loves  American  Cath 
olics,  and  every  other  class  of  Americans  with  votes 
to  register.  (The  only  exception  to  this,  to  date, 
being  the  case  of  Southern  negroes;  but  this  is  too 
recent  to  get  the  true  perspective  yet.) 

The  question  naturally  arises:  Why  was  Mr. 
Roosevelt  willing  to  risk  losing  his  Catholic  sup 
port  in  the  United  States  through  the  faux  pas  at 
Rome  in  1910? 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  117 

If  he  were  unwilling  to  comply  with  the  stipula 
tion  with  respect  to  the  Methodists,  which  he  knew 
beforehand  would  be  made,  why  did  he  ask  to  go 
to  the  Vatican  at  all?  Yet,  having  asked  and  re 
ceived  assent — with  the  "friendly  intimation" — 
why  did  he  choose  to  disregard  the  latter,  and  raise 
the  question  of  his  "personal  liberty,"  which  was 
not  at  all  at  issue?  His  case  was  not  analogous  to 
that  of  Mr.  Fairbanks;  he  was  not  a  Methodist, 
nor  had  he  been  asked  to  address  the  Methodists; 
they  stated  afterward  that  they  had  no  intention 
of  embarrassing  him  with  such  an  invitation.  The 
way  was  open  and  clear  for  him  to  visit  the  Pope 
if  he  wished  it.  Did  he  wish  it?  If  so,  why  raise 
this  senseless  obstacle?  Evidently  he  had  wished 
to  see  the  Pope  when  he  preferred  the  request  in 
February.  What  had  occurred  to  alter  his  de 
sire? 

With  one  of  T.  R.'s  duplex  and  complex  per 
sonality,  one  must  delve  for  motives.  Surface  in 
dications  are  never  trustworthy.  Probably  the  best 
sidelight  on  this  Vatican-Roosevelt  episode  is  fur 
nished  by  a  sermon  preached  in  the  Foundry  Meth 
odist  Episcopal  Church  at  Washington,  D.  C,  on 
March  13,  1910,  by  the  Rev.  Bishop  Earl  Cran 
ston,  head  of  all  the  Northern  Methodist  congre 
gations. 

In  this  fervid  discourse,  which  was  entitled  "The 
Church  and  the  Government,"  the  Reverend  Bis- 


n8  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

hop  virtually  flung  down  the  gage  of  battle  to  the 
Holy  See,  and  raised  the  standard  of  revolt  to  the 
Republican  Party.  Catholics  might  say  there  was 
nothing  new  about  the  first  part  of  the  Bishop's 
program,  but  those  acquainted  with  the  political 
history  of  the  country  must  concede  that  it  would 
be  "going  some"  for  Northern  Methodists  to  de 
sert  the  Republican  standards.  "Leaders  who  deal 
largely  in  political  craft,"  declared  the  Bishop, 
"need  just  now  an  admonition.  The  people  are  not 
being  fooled  all  the  time  that  they  are  silent.  They 
may  be  too  busy  to  write  letters,  but  they  know 
there  is  now  no  vital  issue  between  the  great  parties, 
no  moral  issue  except  that  involved  in  keeping 
party  pledges.  Protestanism  has  not  figured  largely 
in  the  calculations  of  politicians,  because  it  has  been 
a  divided  force.  They  think  we'll  vote  the  ticket 
anyhow" — and  here  the  preacher  paused  impress 
ively,  and  swept  the  congregation  with  a  significant 
smile  which  said  plainer  than  words,  "We'll  show 
them  something  different!" 

Bishop  Cranston  is  probably  the  most  powerful 
Protestant  ecclesiastic  in  the  country.  He  is  an 
able  scholar,  an  effective  preacher,  a  winning  per 
sonality,  a  life-long  Republican,  and  withal  a 
kindly,  lovable  old  man.  His  word  would  carry  as 
much  or  more  weight,  not  only  to  the  Methodists, 
but  to  all  Protestant  America,  than  any  other 
churchman  in  it.  He  left  Washington  immediately 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  119 

after  preaching  that  sermon,  to  travel  the  rounds 
of  his  circuit,  and  everywhere  he  reiterated  its  pur 
port,  and  sounded  the  tocsin  for  Protestant  resist 
ance  to  Papal  encroachments  in  American  politics. 
Rumors  began  to  circulate  also  about  a  "Protestant 
Federal  Council,  or  League,"  composed  of  all  de 
nominations,  with  headquarters  at  Washington, 
whose  purpose  was  to  keep  tab  on  political  ma- 
neuvres  with  the  "hierarchy." 

Inevitably  the  wireless  currents  carried  the  news 
of  all  this  across  the  African  seas,  and  the  Past 
Grand  Master  of  American  politics  had  been  re 
flecting  on  it  some  days  when  he  received  the  mes 
sage  from  Cardinal  Merry  del  Val,  that  His  Holi 
ness  would  be  pleased  to  receive  him — with  the 
"friendly  intimation."  So  here  was  his  opportunity 
to  disarm  American  Protestants,  and  he  would  take 
a  chance  on  appeasing  American  Catholics.  The 
Rev.  Mr.  Tipple's  too  hasty  felicitation  on  the 
event  enabled  the  Colonel  almost  immediately  to 
turn  his  favorite  trick  of  "playing  both  ends 
against  the  middle,"  by  calling  off  the  reception  he 
had  planned  to  give  the  American  Colony — as  a 
direct  rebuke  to  the  Methodists  for  allowing  the 
Rev.  Tipple  to  "talk  too  much." 

From  the  chorus  of  applause  from  the  Protest 
ant  clergy  on  this  side  the  water,  T.  R.  must  have 
been  vastly  pleased  with  the  success  of  the  Protest 
ant  end  of  his  double  coup.  I  was  much  amused 


120  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

by  the  ringing  words  of  praise  for  Roosevelt's 
" fearlessness  and  frankness"  from  one  of  these  rev 
erend  gentlemen  who,  some  time  before  the  Vatican 
incident,  had  discussed  with  me  Roosevelt's  con 
genital  untruthfulness,  and,  to  illustrate,  had  told 
me  a  story  of  his  having  been  unanimously  elected 
to  the  Ananias  Club  by  a  company  of  physicians  at 
Washington — so  much  for  the  warring  zeal  of  op 
posing  sectaries. 

The  only  noteworthy  incident  of  T.  R.'s  visit  to 
Paris  was  the  address  he  had  been  invited  to  make 
before  the  Sorbonne,  wherein  the  French  savants 
were  treated  to  such  startling  pronouncements  as, 
"Educated  men  know  more  than  ignorant  men! 
Peace  is  not  so  bloody  as  war!  The  rich  are  not 
the  poor!  Race  suicide  is  one  cause  of  depopula 
tion" — and,  having  tapped  this  prolific  theme,  the 
Roosevelt  eloquence  flowed  glibly  on  to  its  close, 
while  Parisian  matrons  listened  aghast,  marveling 
at  the  idiosyncrasies  of  American  ex-Presidents. 

At  Berlin  the  Kaiser  paid  him  the  unwonted 
compliment  of  allowing  him  to  review  the  German 
troops,  and  T.  R.  signalized  his  appreciation  of  the 
honor  by  declaring  that  "the  German  Army  is  the 
greatest  university  in  the  world!" 

The  Guildhall  speech,  made  after  he  had  been 
given  the  freedom  of  the  city  of  London,  was  the 
grand  climacteric  effort  of  T.  R.'s  European 
speech-making.  In  this,  among  other  things,  he 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  121 

condemned  the  policy  of  the  British  Government 
in  Egypt  as  weak  and  sentimental,  and  exhorted 
John  Bull  to  either  lay  on  with  the  Big  Stick,  or 
clear  out  of  Egypt  altogether!  It  seemed  to  be 
the  concensus  of  opinion — at  home  and  abroad — 
that,  for  sheer  ignorance,  bad  manners,  and  colossal 
effrontery,  the  Guildhall  speech — in  the  graphic 
language  of  Huckleberry  Finn — ulaid  over"  all  the 
Colonel's  previous  European  stunts.  Even  his  ad 
miring  friend,  the  late  W.  T.  Stead,  observed,  in 
sorrow,  that  this  speech  "brought  about  a  bad 
slump  in  the  value  of  Roosevelt  as  a  preacher  of 
righteousness." 

Nevertheless,  Mr.  Stead  ventures  the  prediction : 
"After  being  feted  everywhere  as  the  greatest  liv 
ing  American,  he  will  return  to  his  native  land  cov 
ered  with  laurels  and  laden  with  the  trophies  of  the 
chase,  and  will — unless  something  unforeseen  hap 
pens — be  nominated,  against  his  emphatic  protest, 
with  enthusiasm  for  a  new  presidential  term  of 
office."  We  can  only  hope  that  Mr.  Stead  was  as 
bad  a  prophet  as  he  was  a  judge  of  T.  R.'s  unwill 
ingness  to  accept  a  new  presidential  term.  Yet 
Stead  was  not  the  only  European  editor  who  was 
predicting  further  lease  of  power  for  the  ex-Presi 
dent.  Nearly  all  the  London  organs,  and  several 
Berlin  and  Paris  papers,  seemed  to  be  perfectly 
satisfied  that  Mr.  Roosevelt  was  marked  out  for 
another  term  in  the  White  House, 


122  BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS 

In  fact  Colonel  Roosevelt  returned  to  his  native 
land  with  a  European  nomination  for  the  presi 
dency  !  Was  it  that  some  adroit  press  agent  whis 
pered  it  in  the  European  ear?  Or  is  the  European 
mind  more  susceptible  to  impressions  by  mental 
suggestion  ? 

Colonel  Roosevelt's  unobtrusive  manner  of  pass 
ing  through  European  capitals,  inspired  a  fellow 
army  officer  on  this  side  to  pen  the  following  verses, 
which  were  read  at  a  social  function  on  Governor's 
Island,  the  night  of  July  16,  1910: 

INCOGNITO 

The  shades  of  night  were  falling  fast, 
As  through  a  town  in  Europe  passed 
A  quiet  man  with  stealthy  tread, 
Who  now  and  then  in  whisper  said, 
Incognito ! 

Before  him  blared  a  big  brass  band, 
He  shot  off  guns  with  either  hand; 
A  red  torch  flared  above  his  head, 
And  as  he  cheered,  again  he  said, 
Incognito ! 

He  wore  a  sash,  red,  white,  and  blue, 
At  times  he  beat  a  bass  drum,  too; 
And  then  he  stood  upon  his  head, 
As  with  a  wink  again  he  said, 
Incognito  I 


BULL  MOOSE  TRAILS  123 

"Is  that  your  name?"  the  old  man  cried; 
He  waved  the  questioner  aside, 
"Begone !  the  query  gives  me  dread, 
I'm  traveling,  you  see,"  he  said, 
Incognito ! 

"Stay!"  cried  a  maid,  "Aren't  you  T.  R., 
The  mighty  hunter  from  afar?" 
The  stranger  flushed  and  hung  his  head, 
"I'm  trying  hard  to  keep,"  he  said, 
Incognito  I 

Where'er  he  went  'twas  just  the  same, 
But  when  they  asked  him  for  his  name, 
He  would  not  mention  it;  instead, 
He  tried  to  ride  away,  and  said, 
Incognito ! 

And  then  as  through  the  land  he  passed, 
And  when  he  sailed  for  home  at  last, 
Nobody  knew  the  strange  man's  name, 
Nobody  knew  from  whence  he  came ; 
His  modest  ways,  his  cringing  mien 
Left  memories  calm  and  most  serene; 
And  if  you  ask  the  people  there, 
Just  who  he  was,  with  puzzled  air 
Each  one  will  say,  and  shake  his  head, 
He  never  told,  he  only  said, 
Incognito ! 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


'843 


14 


25)u\'57JZ 


KEC'D  LD 

JUL221957 


Marj4'49CP 

180ct'50HF 


REC'D  LD 

FEB28  1959 


LD21-100m-9,'47(A5702Bl6)47Wti    7 


DEAD 

30Apr'62ttl 


.General  Library 
University  of  Californi 


Berkeley^ 


foraia 


YB  20251 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


